The #MNTwins are in Texas to start a 4-game series against the Texas Rangers tonight and they’ll have RHP Michael Pineda on the mound after being activated from the 10-Day IL (Injured List) earlier today.
To make room for Pineda, the Minnesota Twins optioned RHP Randy Dobnak down to AAA Rochester. #Twinsaction
To the game…the Rangers had RHP Pedro Payano on the mound and he set the Twins down 1-2-3 in the top of the 1st but Michael Pineda matched that by setting the Rangers down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 1st then…
The Twins started rolling out the barrels. They put a 5-spot up in the top of the 2nd starting with Luis Arraez’ 3rd HR of the season, a 2-run shot to right field. That was followed by a Marwin Gonzalez double (16), a Jason Castro walk and then a Jake Cave double (6) to score Marwin. Max Kepler then grounded to 2B Elvis Andrus, who tried to get Castro at home but C Jose Trevino couldn’t catch the ball so Castro scored and Jake Cave came around to score, too. 5-0 Twins.
In the top of the 3rd, after Pineda worked around a 1-out walk to keep the Rangers off the board, Luis Arraez doubled and then scored on a Marwin Gonzalez single to make it 6-0 Twins.
The top of the 4th began with a Jake Cave walk then Max Kepler grounded into a fielder’s choice to 3rd. Cave advanced to 2nd then Miguel Sano walked and Payano was replaced by RHP David Carpenter who was greeted with a first pitch RBI single from Jorge Polanco then Eddie Rosario walked then C.J. Cron hit a 2-RBI single to left field. Arraez flew out for the 2nd out but Marwin got another hit to bring in Rosario and in 3 innings the Twins made it 10-0! Add another HR from Miguel Sano, his 22nd of the season, in the top of the 5th to make it 11-0!
Michael Pineda was cruising. He entered the 5th inning with just one hit and 1 walk allowed while striking out 4 but having just come off the injured list, maybe he was lacking the stamina to go into the 5th inning because he got roughed up. He gave up a solo HR to Willie Calhoun (11) then back-to-back singles before getting a force out (a run scored) and a strikeout for the first 2 outs. He’d lost command and it took awhile to get it back enough to get a strikeout for the final out of the 5th inning and his night. He allowed 2 more singles that scored another run but he got out of it without major damage considering his team was still ahead by 8 runs at 11-3.
The Twins got one of those runs back right away as Eddie Rosario hit his 27th HR of the season just over the right field wall in the top of the 6th inning.
In came LHP Devin Smeltzer to relieve Michael Pineda and he had one of the weirdest innings you’ll ever see because all of the outs in the inning came on the basepaths for the Rangers. He gave up a leadoff HR to Hunter Pence (18) then Willie Calhoun singled and was sent home rounding 3rd on a Roughned Odor double to center but Calhoun was gunned down by the relay from Kepler to Polanco and Polanco to Castro. 1 Out.
Former Twins Logan Forsythe then grounded out to 3rd and Miguel Sano got Odor into a rundown for the 2nd out. Jose Trevino then singled to left, advancing Forsythe to 2nd. Delino DeShields then doubled to left field. Forsythe scored. Rosario threw to 3rd and Jose Trevino didn’t see in time that his 3B Coach had the stop sign up so he turned to get back to 3rd but he was too late as Sano put the tag on him to end the inning with the Rangers only scoring 2 more runs on 2 doubles and 2 singles.
Each team added another run each on RBI-singles from Arraez & former Twin Danny Santana.
Smeltzer did a lot better in his other 3 innings, going 1-2-3 in both the 7th & 8th then giving up a run in the 9th but he pitched the final four innings and earned his first @MLB Save because of it.
It’s the same teams at the same time tomorrow and it will be RHP Jake Odorizzi on the mound for the Twins against the Rangers, who will send LHP Mike Minor to the mound and on @FoxSportsNorth at 7:10pm.
