The Minnesota Twins have lost 13 of their last 15 games after yesterday’s loss & even though it was just the 22nd game of a 162-game season, that’s a really tough stretch so manager Rocco Baldelli addressed his team following the loss:
These Minnesota Twins want to win so this tough stretch has to be hard on them. It’s hard on the fans but, in my opinion, it shouldn’t really affect your life very much
Minnesota Twins Lineup:
Cleveland Lineup:
Rocco put Byron Buxton in the leadoff spot today to maybe get something going as quickly as possible and take advantage of Buxton’s incredible start to the 2021 season. Jorge Polanco was hitting cleanup followed by Mitch Garver then Brent Rooker, Willians Astudillo & Andrelton Simmons before rookie OF Alex Kirilloff hitting 9th as they were set to face Cleveland LHP Logan Allen, who has been hit hard so far this season.
The Twins were looking to get back to being a powerful team against left-handed pitchers like they were when they were the Bomba Squad in 2019 so let’s see how they did…
Recap
Byron Buxton made an impact as the leadoff hitter on the 2nd pitch of the game as he hit a 94mph inside fastball out to right field to put the Minnesota Twins up 1-0 and put a jolt of energy into his team right away. It was his 8th HR of the season as he continues to look like an MVP candidate and a player who can lead this team to bigger & better things*.
Josh Donaldson followed with his 2nd HR of the season to left center field. Nelson Cruz then walked and Jorge Polanco cleaned the bases by hitting his 1st HR of the season to left field and, Just Like That, it was 4-0 but…there was a full 9 innings to go on the mound and at the plate in this game and we’re all well aware of that and how they’ve lost in the last week and in the last 15 games.
So…maybe it’s a good thing the last Twins pitcher to win a game was on the mound today in LHP J.A. Happ and that win featured the best start of the 2021 season for a Minnesota Twins pitcher as he pitched 7.1 innings of no-hit baseball but allowed that first hit & was pulled but the Twins won 2-0 so…how would he start today’s game?
He got a groundout & a flyout to begin the bottom of the 1st then gave up a hard-hit linedrive single to José Ramírez but struck out DH Franmil Reyes to end the 1st which is a good sign since Reyes is one of the hottest hitters in the league right now.
In the top of 2, the Minnesota Twins loaded the bases on an Alex Kirilloff single, a Byron Buxton double & a Josh Donaldson walk. That brought up the BoomStick himself and he came within a foot of hitting a Grand Slam but had to settle for a 2-run single to increase the lead to 6-0.
Happ allowed a Rosario HR** (2) in the bottom of the 2nd to get Cleveland on the board but the Twins responded in the top of the 3rd when Willians “La Tortuga” Astudillo hit his 2nd HR of the season out to left field to make it 7-1.
Happ set down the next 8 Cleveland batters, going 1-2-3 in the 3rd & the 4th, until Amed Rosario came back up to the plate and doubled (2) to right field to lead off the bottom of the 5th. He then advanced to 3rd and scored on 2 groundouts. The rest of the way, the crafty lefty allowed just a walk in the 6th and a leadoff single (to Eddie Rosario) in the 7th for another fantastic start that included striking out Franmil Reyes twice and pretty much shutting down the top of the Cleveland order (1-for-11 with a single & a walk with 2 strikeouts).
In the top of the 5th, Mitch Garver came back up to the plate after striking out in his first 2 at-bats when he was hitting .143/.186/.304 8-for-56 with 3 doubles & 2 HRs with 3 walks & 27 strikeouts but maybe, just maybe, hitting is contagious and after seeing his teammates start to flourish with the bat, he forgot about those numbers and said, screw it, it’s time to start delivering the GarvSauce like I did in 2019*** so he crushed a ball off the facing of the Miller Lite stand in left field and YouTube analyst Jim Thome said he’d never seen anyone hit a ball that far in that part of Progressive Field before.
Minnesota Twins RHP Randy Dobnak replaced Happ to begin the 8th and he set ‘em down 1-2-3 with a strikeout. He came back out for the 9th and allowed a leadoff single to Jake Bauers then struck out Franmil Reyes with a nasty changeup then did the same thing to Eddie Rosario before getting the other Rosario to ground out to 3rd to end the game.
Minnesota Twins 10, Cleveland Baseball 2 | Final
W-Happ (2-0) L-Allen (1-4)
HR:
MN: 6: Buxton (8) Donaldson (2) Polanco (1) Astudillo (2) & Garver 2 (3,4)
CLE: 1: A. Rosario (2)
2B:
MN: Buxton 2 (7,8); CLE: Rosario, A. (2)
Pitching:
MN:
Happ: 7IP 4H 2R/ER 1BB 3K 1HR 1 WIN
Dobnak: 2IP 1H 3K
CLE:
Allen: 1.1IP 5H 6R/ER 1BB 1K 3HR 1 Loss
Stephan: 1.2IP 2H 1R/ER 1BB 2K 1HR
Hentges****: 3IP 5H 3R 2ER 0BB 2K 2HR
Wittgren: 1IP 1K
Maton: 1IP 1H
Nelson, K.: 1IP 1K
Buxton: 5-for-5: 3B shy of a cycle (HR, 2B (2)) & a SB (2)
Cruz: 2-for-4: 2 RBI, BB, R
Game Notes
*We can only hope Byron Buxton can stay healthy for the majority of the season. He’s already dealt with some dental issues & patella tendinitis. The majority of Twins Territory just assume he’ll get hurt because he’s never had a full season and that’s all due to injuries but part of that is learning how to play so he can stay healthy and the Twins staff has been working with him on that so…maybe this is the year.
**That’s an Amed Rosario HR as Cleveland has two Rosarios on their roster. The Twins did alright against their former left fielder as Eddie was only 3-for-12 with a double, a run & 1 RBI while striking out 3 times. He’s now hitting just .221/.261/.349 (AVG/OBP/SLG) on the season with 3 doubles, 1 triple, 2 HRs, 13 RBI & 10 runs scored with 5 stolen bases (5-for-5) & he’s walked just 5 times while striking out 19 times in 23 games this season. In contrast, Twins left fielders are hitting .151/.186/.186 (AVG/OBP/SLG) with 3 doubles, 7 RBIs with 2 walks & 33 strikeouts which is last in the American League according to MLB Stats:
***This game reminded a lot of people of The Bomba Squad of the 2019 season where the Minnesota Twins hit more HRs (307) in a single season than any team in the history of the game. Some people are apparently not fond of that Bomba Squad name for some reason. Why would you be against a team that can hit more home runs than any other team thus having the ability to change the game with one swing with the majority of their lineup?
****LHP Sam Hentges (from Moundsview, MN) came into the game in the 4th inning. He allowed a 1st pitch single to Byron Buxton then got a double play off the bat of Josh Donaldson but allowed another single to Nelson Cruz then struck out Polanco to end the top of the 4th. Garver then hit his 1st HR of the game off a 1-0 pitch but Hentges then set down the next 4 batters including a strikeout of Alex Kirilloff before Buxton got another single, this one an infield single, then stole 2nd base but Hentges got out of it by inducing a popout & a groundout to finish the 6th. He was out there to begin the 7th when Jorge Polanco reached on a fielding error then allowed another HR to Mitch Garver before getting pulled after throwing 53 pitches & 30 strikes.
It had to be fun to face his hometown team. There’s another Sam Hentges who plays hockey for the St. Cloud State Huskies and he was drafted by the Minnesota Wild. Sam baseball is 6’6 & 245lbs while the Sam hockey is just 6’0 & 190lbs. Hockey Sam could very likely play for the Wild one day as he just finished his sophomore season scoring 24 points on 7 goals & 17 assists in 28 games for the St. Cloud State Huskies.
The Bottom Paragraph
It literally (& figuratively) comes down to this. It’s obviously nice to see the Minnesota Twins win a game and win it in the way they did today but the big question is where do they go from here? Is this a turning point for the 2021 Minnesota Twins?
It certainly was their most convincing win from both sides of the ball but can a team just pivot from losing 13 of 15 games then go on a tear? Well…look at the Oakland Athletics. They started their season going 0-6 & 1-7 then they won their next 13 games in a row including wins 9, 10 & 11 of that streak against the Minnesota Twins and we saw the difference between a winning team & a losing team in that series where the A’s were getting the breaks and the Twins were not. That 13-12 walk-off win on an error illustrates that pretty well.
You could also look at the Boston Red Sox who started their season losing 3 straight at home against the Baltimore Orioles then they won their next 9 before the Twins snapped that with the Max Kepler walk-off bloop single but…
Only time will tell for the Twins. They’ll get Thursday off before starting a 7-game homestand on Friday against the league-leading 15-8 Kansas City Royals for 3 games then face the Texas Rangers for 4 games.
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