The #MNTwins broke 3 HR records last night. Unless you’ve not watched any baseball this season, you know the big one, 268 HRs in a single season by one team. But, how ‘bout the other 2?
Well, Jorge Polanco hit his 20th and that made it 8 players with 20+ HRs which has never been done before and Garver’s 2 HRs broke the record for most HRs from the catching position in the American League with 39 (Garver-26, Castro-12, Astudillo-1).
Well, it’s September 1st so the Minnesota Twins had the option to call-up any player who was on their 40-man roster so they did and it meant a whole lot of Twinsactions…
They first selected the contract of #3 Prospect RHP Brusdar Graterol (Brew-stir Grat-er-all) to put him on the 40-Man Roster. He’s a young prospect who is normally a starter but he’s had a year that had him miss a lot of games due to injury so they Twins will most likely use him out of the bullpen. He throws in the upper 90s and reached 103.8mph the other night so it should be fun to see him pitch any & every time he takes the mound.
They also selected the contract of OF Ian Miller, who they picked up from Seattle on August 10th for cash. He’s a 27-year-old left-handed hitter who has yet to make his MLB Debut. He looks like a decent hitter with good plate discipline, speed on the bases but not a lot of power.
They recalled LHP Devin Smeltzer, RHP Zack Littell & RHP Kohl Stewart.
They also activated C Willians Astudillo & OF LaMonte Wade, Jr. from the injured list (IL).
They placed RHP Kyle Gibson on the IL with ulcerative colitis, something he’s been dealing with all season after getting e coli poisoning while doing charity work in Hait in the offseason. Hopefully, he can get healthy soon but that doesn’t sound like fun at all.
And…last but not least by a long shot, they activated CF Byron Buxton off the IL. He is said to be only available for pinch-running and as a defensive replacement for the right now.
Alright, now…to the actual Twins action from today!
RHP Michael Pineda was on the mound against @Tigers RHP Spencer Turnbull.
The Twins went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 1st and Detroit OF Victor Reyes singled & stole 2nd base before got a strikeout, a lineout and a groundout to get out of the 1st with no damage.
In the top of the 2nd, Miguel Sano walked with 1 out on the board. Luis Arraez then doubled (12) to advance Sano to 3rd. Jake Cave hit a 2-run single then La Tortuga was hit by a pitch and Jason Castro singled to score Cave from 2nd. Kepler lined out for the 2nd out but Polanco & Nelson Cruz hit back-to-back RBI singles to put the Twins up 5-0.
The Tigers hit back-to-back doubles (Lugo & Dixon) to get on the board in the bottom of the 2nd. 5-1 Twins.
In the top of the 5th, 2B Luis Arraez singled with 1 out then advanced to 2nd on a Jake Cave groundout and then scored on a Willians Astudillo RBI-single. 6-1 Twins.
Pineda had sat down 8 in a row until the bottom of the 5th when he walked the leadoff batter. He struck out the next two batters but also threw 2 wild pitches on those strikeouts to allow Brandon Dixon to advance to 3rd and then score on another Victor Reyes single. 6-2 Twins.
Max Kepler left the game due to an injured leg in the bottom of the 6th. He was replaced by just-activated LaMonte Wade, Jr. who went to RF while Jake Cave moved to CF.
After a Miguel Cabrera single to leadoff the bottom of the 6th, Michael Pineda struck out the next 3 batters for his 9th strikeout of the game. He would be replaced by RHP Sam Dyson and he’d allow a solo HR to Jordy Mercer but he got through the 7th with no other damage. 6-3 Twins.
In the top of the 8th, LaMonte Wade reached on a force out then advanced to 2nd on Polanco’s single and scored on Nelson Cruz’ RBI-single and that was followed by an Eddie Rosario RBI-single that scored Polanco so the Twins got 2 insurance runs to make it 8-3.
RHP Sergio Romo pitched a perfect 8th with 1 strikeout. The Twins went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 9th and that set up the Major League Baseball debut of Twins RHP Brusdar Graterol. His center fielder was also changed to Byron Buxton who replaced Jake Cave.
Graterol’s first pitch was 100mph on the radar gun but was actually 99.6mph but he needed just 4 pitches to strike out Dawel Lugo for his 1st MLB Strikeout. He then allowed a single to Brandon Dixon and threw a wild pitch to allow Dixon to advance to 2nd and that brought out pitching coach Wes Johnson for a Mound Visit and on the very next pitch, he got Jake Rogers to ground into a 4-3 double play to end the game!
Nice job, Brusdar!
The Twins will go for the series tomorrow with RHP Jake Odorizzi on the mound at 12:10pm on Fox Sports North pitching against Tigers RHP Jordan Zimmerman.
