The #MNTwins made a couple Twinsactions today. Both of them were trades but they weren’t the big trades they, and their fans, wanted, trades for an ace-type pitcher like New York Mets RPH Noah Syndergaard, Arizona Diamondbacks RHP Zach Greinke or Toronto Blue Jays RHP Marcus Stroman but…maybe they got their own ace-type pitcher to step up like they’ve wanted him to.
RHP Jose Berrios pitched 7 brilliant, 2-hit, scoreless innings with no walks while striking out 11 Miami Marlins and, behind a 3-run HR from Mitch Garver (20), a solo HR from Max Kepler (29), a 2-run HR from Eddie Rosario (23) and an RBI-single from Jonathan Schoop that scored Marwin Gonzalez, he had a nice 7-0 lead when he exited the game after those 7 innings.
RHP Sean Poppen pitched a perfect 1-2-3 8th with 2 strikeouts but ran into trouble when he stayed in the game to try to finish it up in the 9th. He allowed back-to-back-to-back singles then allowed Brian Anderson to plate 4 runs on one swing of the bat to make the score 7-4. Poppen struck out the next batter for the 1st out but Rocco wasn’t messing around and he went to LHP Taylor Rogers to finish the game and Mr. Rogers only needed 11 pitches to strike out both Starlin Castro and Martin Prado to finish the game.
They’ll look for the sweep tomorrow afternoon at 11:10am with RHP Michael Pineda 7-5, 4.30 ERA, 1.18 WHIP) on the mound against RHP Jordan Yamamoto (4-2, 3.64 ERA, 1.02 WHIP) on @FoxSportsNorth.
Back to the #Twinsaction Trades. The Twins waited to the very end of the Trade Deadline to get RH RP Sam Dyson from the @Giants for AAA OF Jaylin Davis and low-minor league pitchers Prelander Berroa and Kai-Wei Teng, none of whom were in their Top 30 Prospects. Jaylin Davis is in the midst of a great season with 25 HRs between AA @PensacolaBlueWahoos & AAA @RocRedWings but he will need to be added to the 40-Man Roster or be exposed to the Rule 5 Draft so…we’ll see if that one hurts down the road.
But, they addressed their biggest need for relief pitching with the acquisition of Sam Dyson.
“We now have Dyson, Romo and [Taylor] Rogers, three guys there that have some back-end experience and can do some different things against different parts of the lineup,” chief baseball officer Derek Falvey said. “[Manager Rocco Baldelli] has already proven that he’s willing to use different guys in different spots based on how the matchup works. So I think it only helps that now you have guys that have been through this before and have pitched and closed out games at the Major League level. That only helps.”
The 31-year-old Dyson had a 2.47 ERA in 49 relief appearances for the Giants this season, posting 47 strikeouts and only seven walks in 51 innings. Significantly, the right-hander is under team control through next season and has some postseason experience from his time with the Rangers in 2015 and ’16.
Falvey and Baldelli both expressed confidence that Dyson, who heavily features a sinker and cutter and generates strong ground-ball rates, will be a late-inning option against both right-handed and left-handed hitters.
“I think this is a very nice acquisition for us,” Baldelli said. “He’s a hard-throwing guy, a guy with very, very good command. His fastball is a weapon in and of itself. I don’t know if he calls it a sinker or a two-seamer or what he calls it, but I think he gets great action on that pitch. This is a guy that’s done it, he’s had a lot of success. He’s a guy we’re going to turn to in later-inning situations, and I’m excited to be able to call his name.”
All of a sudden, the Twins’ bullpen looks that much deeper and more experienced, and the addition of two veterans that have late-inning experience should take needed pressure off Rogers, who has pitched more than one inning in 13 of his 40 appearances this season.
So, now they just have to get to work and keep that American League Central lead where it is and/or raise it by continuing their resilient ways in every game.
