Minnesota Twins Recap vs Brewers – 8-18-2020

The Minnesota Twins send RHP Kenta Maeda to the mound tonight and he’s been very good so far this season with a 3-0 record, a 2.66 ERA (Earned Run Average) & a 0.72 WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitcher) in 4 starts so far this season. 

The Brewers sent RHP Corbin Burnes (0-0, 3.38 ERA, 1.19 WHIP) to the mound.

Here’s how they line up for tonight’s ballgame:

Twins Lineup:
RF Max Kepler
SS Jorge Polanco
DH Nelson Cruz
LF Eddie Rosario
3B Marwin Gonzalez
2B Luis Arraez
1B Miguel Sano
CF Byron Buxton
C Alex Avila

Brewers lineup:
CF Avisail Garcia
LF Christian Yelich
2B Keston Hiura
1B Justin Smoak
DH Ryan Braun
C Omar Narvaez
RF Ben Gamel
SS Luis Urias
3B Eric Sogard

Both pitchers allowed a walk in the 1st inning but that’s it. Twins starter Kenta Maeda also struck out a batter swinging. There were no hits or walks in the next 3.5 innings. The only batter to reach was Max Kepler who reached on a Wild Pitch strikeout in the bottom of the 3rd.

In the top of the 3rd, Kenta Maeda got the leadoff hitter, SS Luis Urias to ground out for the 1st out. He then struck out 3B Eric Sogard & CF Avisail Garcia swinging to end the inning. Remember this…Sogard is the Brewers 9th hitter in their lineup.

In the top of the 4th, Maeda struck out the side, getting LF Christian Yelich & 2B Keston Hiura swinging and 1B Justin Smoak looking for his 5th consecutive strikeout and his 6th overall on the night.

In the top of the 5th, Maeda got DH Ryan Braun to strike out on a foul tip for his 6th consecutive strikeout to leadoff the inning. The Twins record for most consecutive strikeouts is 7 by LHPs Jim Merritt (1966) and Francisco Liriano (2010). He struck out C Omar Narvaez swinging to tie the Twins record and then got RF Ben Gamel on 3 pitches to end the half-inning and set a new Twins record for most consecutive strikeouts at 8! He was getting them on different pitches, too:

In the bottom of the 5th, back-to-back doubles from Luis Arraez & Miguel Sano scored Arraez. Then Byron Buxton popped up & Alex Avila struck out for the first 2 outs but 2 walks from Max Kepler & Jorge Polanco loaded bases and brought up Nelson Cruz but he struck out swinging to end the 5th. 1-0 Twins

The 6th went 1-2-3 again for Maeda, all of them on groundouts, though, so the record stands at 8 but Kenta Maeda still had not given up a hit in 6 innings. The Twins also went down 1-2-3 in the 6th against new Brewers pitcher Alex Claudio.

In the top of the 7th, Maeda got a groundout, a popout and another strikeout (10th) on 15 pitches to make his total number of pitches for the night 92. This is a big deal since he still had not allowed a hit. In the bottom of the inning, Miguel Sano hit a leadoff double, his 2nd of the night & 5th of the season and was immediately pinch-run for with Adrianza. Buxton popped out to 1st for the 1st out. Alex Avila walked. The Brewers then brought in LHP Brent Suter to face Max Kepler and he got him to pop out to 3rd for the 2nd out so it was up to Jorge Polanco to pick up his teammates with a big hit and he got it done on a RBI-single down 1st baseline to score Adrianza and double the Twins lead. Cruz grounded out to end the 7th. 2-0 Twins

The top of the 8th began with another swinging strikeout for Kenta Maeda (11) but he walked Omar Narvaez and it took 10 pitches. He then struck out Ben Gamel swinging for his 12th strikeout and got to ground into a force out at 2nd to end the half-inning.

In the bottom of the 8th, Eddie Rosario led off the inning with a 4-pitch walk, his 9th of the season. He then stole 2nd base but the Twins needed a replay challenge to overturn the out call. Marwin Gonzalez struck out looking for the 1st out. With Luis Arraez at the plate, a balk was called on LHP Angel Perdomo to advance Rosie to 3rd base. Arraez then walked and Ehire Adrianza hit an RBI-bunt to score Rosario. Byron Buxton then grounded into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. 3-0 Twins

So..Kenta Maeda threw 21 pitches in the 8th inning and that put him at 113 on the night so, of course, this always brings up the question of do you send him out there with a chance to throw a No-Hitter! 113 pitches is the most Kenta Maeda has thrown since coming over to Major League Baseball in January of 2016. He’s 32-years old.

The majority of people say yes without any doubts. The other side would say the point is to win the game and win for the rest of the season and is it really worth it to have a pitcher throwing more than 113 pitches just to get a no-hitter. Well, in the end, the only opinion that matters is that of Manager Rocco Baldelli and Pitching Coach Wes Johnson and they were giving him the chance.

So…here we were, in the top of the 9th…no hits allowed against Brewers 3B Eric Sogard who was 0-2 with a strikeout & a groundout. INF Ildemaro Vargas replaced Luis Arraez at 2nd base. The first pitch was a called strike up & on the outside part of the zone for strike 1. The second pitch was a low changeup and Sogard reached to get his bat on it for a soft line drive that just gets over a shifted Jorge Polanco’s glove to end the no-hitter! No on the No said So…gard! DOH!

Rocco Baldelli quickly came out to get his starting pitcher and he brought in LHP Taylor Rogers to try to close out the game but the Brewers saw a 3-0 deficit with a runner on as a chance for a comeback. Avisail Garcia doubled down the left field line to advance Sogard to 3rd. No Outs, a runner on 2nd and the tying run at the plate in the form of one of the best hitters in the game, Brewers LF & 2018 NL MVP Christian Yelich. He walked on 5 pitches to load the bases. Keston Hiura then came to the plate and he hit a single to center field to score Sogard and keep the bases loaded for pinch-hitter Jedd Gyorko. The same Jedd Gyorko that walked-off the Twins last week. He grounds out to short and the Twins try to turn two but Ildemaro throws a little wide of 1B Marwin Gonzalez so not only does Garcia score but Yelich comes in on the throwing error to tie the game. Oh, boy!

Rogers then struck out both Ryan Braun & pinch-hitter Manny Pina to end the 9th but now the Twins had to regroup and try to win this game. They got a 1-out walk from Max Kepler but new Brewers pitcher RHP Devin Williams struck out the side to send this game into extra innings.

So…Twins fans got to see the new Extra-Innings rules for the 1st time. Those rules are, the last batter out in the previous inning will start the inning at 2nd base. This is to try to end the game quicker. I believe this started in the minors to help keep young pitchers from having to throw more pitching/innings than teams would want young pitchers to throw. That is a good thing…in the minors. It’s not necessarily a good thing for the Majors but it’s been implemented this year to help speed up the ending of an extra-inning game for the same reason. That’s also due to this strange season and playing 60 games where teams/players haven’t maybe had the ideal Spring/Summer training that they’re used. Again, I think this is a good reason to do it…this year. Hopefully, this rule isn’t kept for next season and beyond, though.

Ok. Let’s see how this thing works.

LHP Caleb Thielbar replaced Taylor Rogers to pitch the 10th for the Twins and he set down the Brewers 1-2-3 on 2 flyouts and a popout. In the bottom of the 10th, Rosie flew out to LF. Marwin was called out on a ball so he objected and was then ejected. It was a bad call.

Ildemaro Vargas got his 1st AB with the Twins against Brewers fireballer closer LHP Josh Hader and he battled up there, fouling off 5 pitches and getting the count back to full after the at-bat began 0-2. He then struck out on one of those nasty lefty sliders to end the 10th.

In the 11th, young & upcoming reliever RHP Jorge Alcala replaced Thielbar and he got Garcia to pop up on the first pitch then walked Yelich but he got a flyout from Hiura and got Gyorko to ground out to end the top of the 11th. Jorge Polanco had to barehand a soft but high bouncer that went over Alcala to get Gyorko on a close play at 1st to end the inning.

The Twins had Ildemaro Vargas on 2nd to begin the inning. Adrianza led off the inning and hit a bouncer to 1B Gyorko and he charges it and gets  Vargas trying to advance at 3rd. 1 out. Ehire at 1st and Buxton grounds into his 2nd consecutive inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. It does put Buxton and his Speed Tool at 2nd base to begin the next inning, though.

Alcala stayed in to pitch the 12th for the Twins and Ryan Braun led it off with a single to left field that advanced Gyorko, who began the inning at 2nd, to 3rd. Manny Pina popped out to 2nd for the 1st out. Braun steals 2nd (1). Arcia his a line drive to right field that had something like a 90% chance to be a hit but Max Kepler came in a dove in to barely make a run saving catch. Gyorko was off 3rd base so there wasn’t a chance for him to tag up. Jorge Alcala then got Luis Urias, the only hitter to face Kenta Maeda and not strike out, to strike out swinging to end the 12th and Jorge is pumped!!!

In the bottom of the 12th, Byron Buxton started at 2nd base. Avila grounded out to 1st but Buxton advanced to 3rd on the play. Useful AB, Alex! Kepler was then hit by a pitch. 1 out, runners on 1st & 3rd and Jorge Polanco coming to the plate. The Brewers brought Ryan Braun in from right field so they’d have 5 infielders and just 2 outfielders. It took a minute for them to figure out what they were doing, though. It was kind of strange but interesting, too. We’ll call it The Buxton Effect. Speed Kills!

Jorge has shown himself to be a very good contact hitter and that has helped get it seems just countless hits in these and really any situation. He had already done it with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th. He took a strike from RHP David Phelps that actually didn’t look like a strike but maybe that put him in a mindset of getting something anywhere he can get to in a clutch situation. He knows there’s a lot of speed at 3rd in Buxton. The pitch was high & inside but Jorge got a enough of it to send a little bouncer past the pitcher. Orlando Arcia charged it to get a throw home but Buxton slid in safely to end the game and give Jorge Alcala a win that probably should’ve gone to Kenta Maeda. It was Jorge Alcala’s 1st Major League Win, though, so that’s still pretty sweet and it was a heckuva game!

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Research/Notes:
Maeda pitch count by inning:
1st-15
2nd-7 (22)
3rd-15 (37)
4th-16 (53)
5th-11 (64)
6th-13 (77)
7th-15 (92)
8th-21 (113)
9th-2 (115)