Minnesota Twins Recap at Cleveland Guardians – May 17th, 2024

The Minnesota Twins had lost 3 games from April 22nd through May 12th before losing 3 straight at home to the New York Yankees but they don’t have time to worry about it as they flew to Cleveland to take on the Central Division-leading Cleveland Guardians.

2024 Minnesota Twins Schedule
24-19

MLB Standings
3rd Place in AL Central

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2024 Cleveland Guardians Schedule
27-15

MLB Standings
1st Place in AL Central

Here’s how both teams lined up:

Minnesota Twins Lineup:

Cleveland Guardians Lineup:

Game Recap

The pitching matchup:

Minnesota Twins
RHP Simeon Woods Richardson
(1-0, 3.24 ERA, 1.240 WHIP*)

vs

Cleveland Guardians
RHP Triston McKenzie
(2-3, 3.54 ERA, 1.377 WHIP*)

*ERA=Earned Run Average; WHIP=Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched

Minnesota Twins 2B Edouard Julien led off the game by hitting the 2nd pitch he saw for a screaming liner to left center field…

Geez! How ‘bout that for the 1st play of the game? That ball was off the bat with an exit velocity of 105.6 mph.

DH Trevor Larnach walked on 4 pitches but C Ryan Jeffers grounded into a double play to end the top of the 1st.

Minnesota Twins RHP Simeon Woods Richardson took the mound for the 6th time this season and for the first time after getting hit pretty hard & allowing 5 runs at Toronto so how will did he do in this one?

He set ‘em down 1-2-3 to begin his evening by getting CF Tyler Freeman to fly out to center, 2B Andrés Giménez to ground out to short & 3B José Ramírez to ground out to 2nd to end the 1st inning.

Twins RF Max Kepler reached on catcher’s interference to lead off the 2nd inning but SS Carlos Correa grounded into a 5-4-3 double play then 1B Carlos Santana struck swinging to end the top of the 2nd.

Cleveland Guardians 1B Josh Naylor grounded out to 1st. DH David Fry singled to 2nd. LF Will Brennan grounded out to 1st and RF Ramón Laureano flew out to right field to end the 2nd inning.

LF Alex Kirilloff led off the top of the 3rd…

That’s Alex Kirilloff’s 3rd Home Run of the season to put his team up 1-0. 3B Jose Miranda walked but CF Willi Castro grounded into a 5-6-3 double play then Edouard Julien struck out looking to end the top of the 3rd but…

Minnesota Twins 1 | 0 Cleveland Guardians
Middle of the 3rd

In the bottom of the 3rd, Cleveland C Bo Naylor struck out swinging. SS Gabriel Arias grounded out to short. CF Tyler Freeman singled but Simeon Woods Richardson got Giménez to fly out to center to end the 3rd inning.

The Twins were set down 1-2-3 in the top of the 4th. Cleveland had a baserunner when Josh Naylor was hit by a pitch then David Fry singled for the 2nd time to advance Naylor to 2nd. Will Brennan flew out to center and Laureano lined out to center field to end the 4th inning.

Minnesota had a 2-out walk in the 5th from Alex Kirilloff but he was picked off at 1st.

In the bottom of the 6th, Cleveland got a leadoff single off the bat of 2B Andrés Giménez on a grounder to 3rd. Ramírez struck out swinging as Giménez stole 2nd and a throwing error by C Ryan Jeffers allowed him to advance to 3rd on the play. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli decided to make a pitching change and brought in LHP Steven Okert to replace RHP Simeon Woods Richardson (Sim Woo Rich?) to face Josh Naylor…

Huge play to keep the lead for Minnesota.

That finishes off RHP Simeon Woods Richardson’s pitching line:

Minnesota Twins

RHP Simeon Woods Richardson
5.1IP 4H 0R/ER* 0BB 2K

Up to the plate came DH David Fry who was 2-for-2 already on the day. Okert started him off with 2 sliders for 2 swinging strikes then…

Okert & C Ryan Jeffers saw those 2 swinging strikes and went back to the same pitch but was the location off because it was basically the same pitch David Fry just saw and…

Ughh. Mistakes happen. Unfortunately, this one may cost the Twins in a big game. A flyout ended the 6th inning.

Minnesota Twins 1 | 2 Cleveland Guardians
End of the 6th

The Minnesota Twins had a 2-out double from Max Kepler (10) and a Carlos Correa walk in the top of the 7th to force Cleveland to bring in reliever RHP Hunter Gaddis and he got Carlos Santana to strikeout swinging to end the scoring threat.

Twins RHP Griffin Jax replaced LHP Steven Okert to pitch the 7th and he needed just 9 pitches to set the Guardians down 1-2-3 on 2 swinging strikeouts and a flyout.

RHP Scott Barlow replaced Hunter Gaddis to pitch the 8th for Cleveland. He struck out Alex Kiriloff swinging for the 1st out. Jose Miranda singles to right field and was then removed for pinch-runner Austin Martin. Willi Castro was called out on strikes but Martin stole 2nd…

Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt brought in LHP Tim Herrin to face Twins 2B Edouard Julien so Twins manager Rocco Baldelli pinch-hit for Julien with Kyle Farmer and…

Kyle Farmer has struggled most of the season but since April 27th, he’s started to figure it out as he is now 8-for-24 with 5 doubles & 3 walks &…

This…

Game…

was…

TIED!!!

OF Manuel Margot then pinch-hit for Trevor Larnach and walked but Ryan Jeffers grounded out to 3rd to end the top of the 8th.

Minnesota Twins 2 | 2 Cleveland Guardians
Middle of the 8th

Farmer remained in the game at 2nd, Margot remained in the game as the DH, Martin remained in the game at CF & Willi Castro moved from CF to 3B. RHP Jhoan Duran replaced Griffin Jax to pitch the 8th.

Andrés Giménez hit a 1-out single to left field to bring José Ramírez to the plate…

Here’s that at-bat…

So… if called correctly, that would’ve been a strikeout for the 2nd out and Josh Naylor struck out swinging to end the inning so it would’ve still been a 2-2 game but 2 bad calls turn strikes into balls and the Twins are down a run. When does Major League Baseball fix this? It’s ridiculous to keep going this way when the technology exists to get correct calls. The Twins also needed to challenge the call at 2nd base to turn that into an out.

Minnesota Twins 2 | 2 Cleveland Guardians
End of the 8th

Cleveland brought in their closer RHP Emmanuel Clase. Max Kepler grounded out to 2nd for the 1st out. Carlos Correa was called out on a ball in a 9-pitch at-bat.

Carlos Santana then grounded out to short to end the game.

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Final Score
Minnesota Twins 2 | 3 Cleveland Guardians
W-Tim Herrin (2-0) L-Jhoan Duran (0-1)
S-Emmanuel Clase (13)

Here’s the Umpire Scorecard from @UmpireScorecards on X and what do you know, it favored the Cleveland Guardians by 1+ run:

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