The Minnesota Twins tried to take the series tonight in Game 2 against the Kansas City Royals and they had RHP Joe Ryan on the mound to try to get it done. The Royals sent RHP Brad Keller to the mound. 

After winning last night, the Royals are now the only American League Central Division foe the Minnesota Twins do not have a winning record against as that win made them 2-2 for the season against Kansas City.

The Twins are getting healthy…

Twinsactions…
(Twins Transactions)

RHP Bailey Ober activated off IL; Contract of RHP Trevor Megill Selected; LHP Devin Smeltzer optioned to AAA; RHP Chris Vallimont DFA’d/DFR’d

Here’s how both teams lined up:

Minnesota Twins Lineup:

Kansas City Royals Lineup:

Game Recap

If you’re a Minnesota Twins fan, you know if Joe Ryan is starting, it’s going to be a pretty good game with the likelihood of a 5+ innings of very good pitching and a very good chance of it turning into a Twins Win. Let’s see if that’s what happened tonight.

CF Byron Buxton led off the game with a 10-pitch at-bat that ended in a pop out but seeing that many pitches as the first batter of the game helps his teammates get a look at the starting pitcher and helps get that pitch count up early. 1B Luis Arraez & SS Carlos Correa both grounded out to end the top of the 1st.

Twins starting RHP Joe Ryan struck out Royals leadoff hitter RF Whit Merrifield with a nasty low & away slider after 3 straight heaters at 91, 92 & 93 mph. KC LF Andrew Benintendi followed with a linedrive single to right field for the 1st hit of the game & Joe wasn’t too happy with the ump as he thought the 3rd &/or 5th pitch should’ve been called strikes:

No matter. Joe just got SS Bobby Witt, Jr. to ground into a forceout at 2nd then got 1B Hunter Dozier to strike out swinging on another slider that was even further outside .

The Twins went down 1-2-3 in the 2nd (2B Jorge Polanco flew out to right field, RF Max Kepler grounded out to 1st & C Gary Sánchez struck out swinging.

Kansas City got a 2-out double from CF Kyle Isbel but Joe Ryan sandwiched 2 swinging strikeouts around that double to end the 2nd inning.

The Twins led off the 3rd inning with back-t0-back baserunners on a 3B Gio Urshela walk and a C Ryan Jeffers single to center field. LF Gilberto Celestino then laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners for the 1st out. Byron Buxton then hit a sacrifice fly to the right field foul territory that allowed Gio Urshela to score the 1st run of the game and Luis Arraez followed that with a 2-out RBI-single to make it 2-0 Twins!

Joe Ryan got Royals 2B Nicky Lopez out on 2 pitches to lead off the bottom of the 3rd but on the next 2 pitches, he gave up a double to Whit Merrifield followed by an RBI-single to Andrew Benintendi to cut the lead in half, 2-1 Twins.

Ryan sat down the next 8 in a row including 2 more strikeouts (both looking this time) before he took the mound in the bottom of the 6th and he now had 2 more runs of support after the Twins got 2 more 2-out RBI hits from Max Kepler (single) and Gary Sánchez (double). Ryan then gave up a leadoff double to Andrew Benintendi but got Bobby Witt, Jr. to ground out to 3rd without allowing Benintendi to advance to 3rd on the play. He then walked Hunter Dozier on 4 pitches so Twins Pitching Coach Wes Johnson came out for a mound visit. Royals C MJ Melendez popped out to 3rd for the 2nd out but Carlos Santana was then walked on 6 pitches to load the bases and that ended Joe Ryan’s night as manager Rocco Baldelli went to his bullpen to bring in LHP Caleb Thielbar and he needed just 3 pitches to get Kyle Isbel to fly out to left field to end the threat. 

Joe Ryan’s Final Pitching Line:
5.2IP 5H 1R/ER 2BB 6K
(in line for his 5th Win)

The Twins went down 1-2-3 and Thielbar gave up a leadoff home run to Royals 3B Emmanuel Rivera on a fastball left not far enough inside. That was the 2nd HR in as many days for Rivera.* Thielbar got the next 2 batters out before walking Benintendi so Rocco went to RHP Joe Smith and he got Witt to ground out to short to end the 7th. 4-2 Twins
*He only has 3 home runs on the season & 4 in his career so he must get really happy when he sees Minnesota on the schedule. 

The Twins got that run back in the top of the 8th when Luis Arraez led off with a walk then advanced to 2nd on Carlos Correa linedrive single to center field. Jorge Polanco flew out to right field for the 1st out then Max Kepler grounded into a fielder’s choice to 2nd (Correa out at 2nd) but it allowed Arraez to advance to 3rd and a Gabe Speier wild pitch allowed Arraez to score to make it 5-2 Twins.

Twins reliever RHP Joe Smith came out to pitch the 8th and allowed a 2-out double to Carlos Santana but then struck out Kyle Isbel looking to end the inning.

It was looking like the Twins would need a closer but they got a double down the left field line off the bat of Gio Urhsela to lead off the top of the 9th. Ryan Jeffers sacrificed Urshela to 3rd on the second sac bunt of the day for the Twins. Celestino & Buxton walked on 9 total pitches to load the bases for Luis Arraez who came through with another RBI-single to left field and Carlos Correa hit a 2-run double off the right center field wall to score 2 more. 

Jorge Polanco hit a sacrifice fly to add another Twins run to make it 9-2 Twins before Kepler flew out to end the inning.

Rocco brought in RHP Cody Stashak to finish the game and he needed 18 pitches but he set the Royals down 1-2-3 and finished by striking out Dairon Blanco looking at a fastball away to send the Twins into a Game 3 looking for the sweep!

The Twins have been putting together wins and winning series since their 4-8 start. They split or lost all of their first 4 series but since then, they’ve won all but two of their next 9 series. Houston swept them at home and they split a 4-game series in Baltimore. Their record since that 4-8 start…

20-8 and they lead the American League Central by 4.5 games over the Chicago White Sox!

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Final Score
Minnesota Twins 9 | 2 Kansas City Royals
W-Ryan(5-2) L-Keller(1-4)

Pitching
Starters
MN:
RHP Joe Ryan: 
5.2IP 5H 1R/ER 2BB 6K – 5th Win

KC:
RHP Brad Keller: 
7IP 5H 4R/ER 3BB 4K – 4th Loss

Bullpen
MN:
LHP Caleb Thielbar: 
1IP 1H 1R/ER 1BB 0K 1HR – 4th Hold

RHP Joe Smith: 
1.1IP 1H 1K – 8th Hold

RHP Cody Stashak: 
1IP 1K

KC:
LHP Gabe Speier: 
1IP 1H 1R/ER 1BB 1K

LHP Foster Griffin: 
1IP 3H 4R/ER 2BB

Hitting
Home Runs
MN:
None

KC:
Emmanuel Rivera (3)

Doubles
MN:
Gary Sánchez (13), Gio Urshela (3), Carlos Correa (7

KC:
Kyle Isbel (4), Whit Merrifield (6), Andrew Benintendi (4), Carlos Santana (4)

2-Out RBI
MN (Inning):
Luis Arraez (3rd), Gary Sánchez (6th), Max Kepler (6th)

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Game Notes

*
DEFENSE! DEFENSE!

This 2022 Minnesota Twins team is a very good defensive team. Gio Urshela has made what seems like countless great defensive plays at 3rd base. He’s been so good over there that it appears Luis Arraez won’t play much more 3rd base and he’s now slotting into a platoon at 1st base with Jose Miranda right now and eventually Alex Kirilloff once he returns from a rehab assignment at AAA St. Paul.

The corner outfield defense has gotten better too. Max Kepler has always been good defensively in right field and they’ve used a plethora of players in left field with Alex Kirilloff, Trevor Larnach, Nick Gordon & now Gilberto Celestino.

What brought this on? The Twins were just okay on defense in 2021 so was it the addition of Gold & Platinum Glove winner Carlos Correa at shortstop that has helped them excel so far this season? Or the combination of Correa, Byron Buxton & Jorge Polanco to make them a really strong team up the middle?

**
The Return of the Piranhas

The Twins have been scoring runs without hitting the ball over the fence including using the sacrifice bunt to help get runners to 3rd then coming up with clutch hits.

The power is there but it’s definitely a good thing to be able to score runs in many ways.

***
Is it the Competition?

The Twins have played just 8 of their 40 games against teams currently above .500 and their record in those games is 2-6. The 2 wins were against the Tampa Bay Rays and the 6 losses were against Tampa Bay (1), the Los Angeles Dodgers (2) and the Houston Astros (3).

Only 5 American League and 6 National League teams are currently over .500. That will very likely change but it will be interesting to see how they do as their schedule gets 

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Next Up

Game 3 tomorrow afternoon at 1:10 pm on Bally Sports North as the Twins go for the sweep:

RHP Bailey Ober
(1-1, 2.75 ERA, 1.22 WHIP*)

vs

RHP Brady Singer
(1-0, 2.84 ERA, 0.95 WHIP)

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

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