The Minnesota Twins go for a series & season sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates and also try to extend their winning streak to 7 games with RHP Kenta Maeda on the mound against Pirates RHP JT Brubaker. Twins 2B Luis Arraez gets the day off so Marwin Gonzalez gets the start at 2B and Ehire Adrianza will start at the hot corner.
The Twins have done a great job of jumping on teams early. So far, this season, the Twins have scored 16 runs in the 1st inning and 15 in the 2nd inning.
They added to that today as they struck again in the early going. RF Max Kepler grounded out to 2nd but SS Jorge Polanco singled to right field then, after DH Nelson Cruz popped out to 1st for the 2nd out, he stole 2nd base for his 1st stolen base of the season. LF Eddie Rosario walked and the ball 4 pitch (pitch #9) was a high and way outside fastball that allowed Polanco to advance to 3rd. That brought up 1B Miguel Sano and he took a slider for strike one but then turned on a low, inside fastball and turned a scoreless game into a 3-0 game and may have “broke left field” with a line drive HR (3) just inside the left field foul pole. It for sure sounded like he left a mark on at least one seat. BANG! 3-0 Twins
#TheSoundsOfTheGame
Twins starter RHP Kenta Maeda got 3 flyouts in the bottom of the 1st. The Twins then got a leadoff single from Ehire Adrianza but C Alex Avila grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to put 2 quick outs on the board and empty the bases. CF Byron Buxton came to the plate and hit the ball hard to the Pirates 3B Phillip Evans but he couldn’t handle it right away and knowing it was the speedy Buxton who hit the ball, panic set in quickly but he couldn’t grab the ball quick enough so his Speed Tool allowed Buxton to reach on an error. Unfortunately, Max Kepler grounded out to 2nd again to end the half inning.
The Pirates led off the bottom of the 2nd with 2 singles from 1B Colin Moran and LF Bryan Reynolds. RF Gregory Polanco was either looking for the curveball or just likes what he saw and launched a 3-run Game-Tying HR into the river!
Maeda then set down the next 14 straight Pirates, striking out 4 of them (swinging) before walking Josh Bell with 2 outs in the bottom of the 6th. The next batter grounded out at that’s as far as Kenta Maeda would go today. Kenta Maeda’s line:6IP 3H 3R/ER 1BB 4K 1 HR and he was in line to get his 3rd win of the season when he left.
Pirates starter JT Brubaker was taken out after the 3rd and replaced by RHP Cody Ponce and he gave up 2 hits, 1 walk and struck out 3 in those 3 innings. The 2 hits were big hits but before those happened, he got a friendly call on strike 3 to Alex Avila & Avila flipped his bat back to the dugout in response to the obviously low pitch:
So, Avila should’ve been on 1st with a walk when Byron Buxton comes to the plate next and ends up doing this on the 2nd pitch of the at-bat for his 1st HR of the season. Rosie got his in the 5th for his 3rd HR of the season. 5-3 Twins
The Twins had 3 hits & 1 walk in the final 4 innings, all singles from Cruz (2) & Adrianza and the walk went to Alex Avila on basically the same pitch he was called out on in the 4th. Come on, Blue!
The Twins brought in RHP Tyler Clippard for the 6th and he allowed a single but also struck out 2 in a scoreless 7th. RHP Sergio Romo pitched the 8th and walked the first batter he faced, CF Jerrod Dyson. Dyson then sandwiched stealing 2nd & 3rd around a Adam Frazier flyout then scored on an RBI groundout to 3rd to get within 1 at 5-4. Romo struck out Josh Bell to finish off the 8th with a 1-run Twins lead still intact.
Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli brought in LHP Taylor Rogers to close out the game. He gave up a leadoff single to Colin Moran on one of those just-trying-to-make-contact swings. Moran was pinch-run for by Cole Tucker. Bryan Reynolds then doubled down the 3rd-base line to advance Tucker to 3rd. Rogers struck out Gregory Polanco swinging for the 1st out and Pirates manager Derek Shelton then pinch-hit right-handed Kevin Newman for JT Riddle and this happened:
That’s a tough loss as the Minnesota Twins bullpen has been great so far this season but this is going to happen every now and then. This Twins team will respond the right way when they play the Kansas City Royals in KC tomorrow night at 7:05pm with:
LHP Devin Smeltzer (1-0, 11.57 ERA) on the mound and against RHP Jakob Junis (0-0, 4.15 ERA).
