Twins got a comeback victory last night to set up an interesting last day of the season.
The Minnesota Twins activated 2B Luis Arraez and recalled LHP Devin Smeltzer before last night’s game. They optioned RHP Edwar Colina and OF LaMonte Wade, Jr.
Injury Updates: 3B Josh Donaldson (calf) is feeling better and is day-to-day, while CF Byron Buxton came in today with symptoms consistent with a “mild” concussion, according to Derek Falvey…so he’s currently day-to-day, too.
Luis Arraez is in the lineup playing and batting 2nd. Jake Cave is in for Buxton at CF & Ehire Adrianza is in for Donaldson at 3B. Miguel Sano is getting the day off so Marwin Gonzalez will play 1B tonight.
Big Mike Pineda was on the mound against Reds RHP Luis Castillo:
Pineda has been very good since coming back from his suspension on September 1st. Cleveland got a lot of hits off of him a couple weeks ago but he did enough to give the Twins a chance to win in every start so far and they have won every won of his 4 previous starts while he’s only got the win in 2 of those games. They could definitely use another win to keep their chances of winning the American League Central alive so…how’d it go?
In the top of the 1st, the Reds got a single to LF from Shogo Akiyama. He then stole 2nd base (7) and Jesse Winker walked to bring up 1B Joey Votto and he doubled (8) to right field to score Akiyama and advance Winker to 3rd. Pineda then struck out Eugenio Suaraz for the 1st out but Mike Moustakas hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Winker from 3rd. Freddy Galvis walked but Brian Goodwin flew out to right to end the top of the 1st. 2-0 Reds
In the bottom of the 1st, Max Kepler grounded out to 2nd and up came Luis Arraez in his first action since September 8th. He hit his 6th double of the season on a line drive to center field. Eddie Rosario grounded out to 3rd and Arraez advanced to 3rd & Nelson Cruz knocked him in with a single to right field. Jake Cave then struck out to end the 1st inning. 2-1 Reds
Pineda had a much better 2nd inning allowing just a 2-out single to Akiyama. The Twins went down 1-2-3 on a flyout, a strikeout and a groundout.
Joey Votto led off the top of the 3rd with a line-drive off the right center field wall but Max Kepler played the bounce perfectly then made a perfect throw to 2nd to get him out just before he slid into 2nd. Defense, baby! Suarez walked but Moustakas flew out to left and Galvis struck out swinging to end the top of the 3rd.
In the bottom of the 3rd, Ehire Adrianza grounded out to 1st to lead off the inning then the Twins got back-to-back-to-back doubles from Kepler (8), Arraez (7 & 2nd of the night in 2 at-bats) & Rosario (7) to score 2 runs and take a 3-2 lead. Cruz & Cave grounded out to end the inning. 3-2 Twins
Pineda finished his outing with a 1-2-3 4th inning. He had thrown 80 pitches but he was about to face the top of the Reds lineup for the 3rd time and the Twins might have wanted to limit his outing so he’s ready for the postseason. He also needed 30+ pitches to get through the 1st inning and had just thrown 48 strikes among those 80 pitches.
The Twins got a 1-out double (4) from Marwin on a shiftbeater down the 3rd baseline and he advanced to 3rd on Ryan Jeffers groundout then scored on a wild pitch to double the Twins lead. Adrianza then struck out to end the 4th. 4-2 Twins
RHP Tyler Clippard took over for the Twins in the 5th and he set the Reds down 1-2-3 on a flyout, a popout & a groundout. The Reds replaced Luis Castillo with RHP Anthony DeSclafani and Max Kepler greeted him with his 2nd double of the night (9) to right center field. Luis Arraez then hit his 3rd double of the night (7) to the left center field wall to score Kepler from 2nd and man, isn’t it good to see Kepler and Arraez hitting and getting in a good groove at the plate? Rosario flew out to the left center field wall. Cruz grounded out to 2nd and Cave flew out to left to end the 5th. 5-2 Twins
RHP Cody Stashak took over in the 6th for the Twins and he set the Reds down 1-2-3 on two groundouts flyout. The Twins also went down 1-2-3 in the 6th so Stashak came out to pitch or, at least, begin the 7th inning and he allowed back-to-back singles but got Curt Casali to strike out looking on a pitch that was a little low and Casali didn’t agree. Rocco Baldellit then went to his bullpen to bring in LHP Taylor Rogers to face Akiyama. The Reds countered that move by pinch-hitting Nick Castellanos to get the right-handed hitter up against Rogers. He started the at-bat with 2 sliders to get ahead in the count at 0-2 with one fouled off and one swung over but the 3rd pitch was also a slider but it was left up and was in almost the same spot as the pitch that was fouled off and Castellanos lined it into left field to get the Reds within 2 runs at 5-3. The Reds pinch hit Aristides Aquino for Jesse Winker and Rogers hit him in the back foot on low slider to load the bases and bring up Joey Votto.
The at-bat started with a high fastball that just missed even though it hit the strike zone from the TV feed. A slider up & away for a strike was followed by a fastball up & in that was fouled off for strike 2. A fastball low & outside evened the count at 2-2 then a fastball was fouled off again before a slider missed to fill the count and Rogers threw another slider low & outside out of the zone for a swinging strikeout for the 2nd out. A Mound Visit preceded the at-bat against Eugenio Suarez and Rogers got him to ground out to short to end the 7th. 5-3 Twins
In the bottom of the 7th, Adrianza led it off with his 7th double, a line-drive to center field. He then advanced to 3rd on a wild pitch. Max Kepler walked and Luis Arraez added his 4th hit of the night but this one was just one of thos single-base hits but it did bring in a run & advance Kepler to 3rd so it’s okay that it wasn’t a double, Luis. It got the Twins the run back they gave up in the top of the 7th. Rosario then hit a sacrifice fly to score Kepler but the Reds got Arraez at 2nd base for a double play. Cruz then struck out to end the 7th. 7-3 Twins
Taylor Rogers came out to begin the 8th and got 2 quick groundouts before Rocco replaced him with RHP Tyler Duffey & the Stuff of Duff got a groundout to short on 2 pitches to end the top of the 8th. RHP Robert Stephenson replaced DeSclafani and he hit Jake Cave with a pitch to lead off the inning but Jake Cave was caught stealing for the 1st out. Polanco flew out & Marwin struck out swinging to end the 8th inning.
Duffey came out to pitch the 9th and his Stuff (the Right Stuff?) struck out the side, one swinging and two looking at that nasty Duffey curveball, to end the game and clinch home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs for the Minnesota Twins.
Highlights & Stats HERE!
It also sets up a very interesting last day of the regular season today as the Minnesota Twins can win the American League Central Division with a win or Chicago White Sox loss. If the Twins lose, the White Sox win, the White Sox would win the Division. If the White Sox lose & the Cleveland Indians win, Cleveland would overtake the White Sox for the 4th seed and the White Sox would then be a Wild Card team.
The Twins sit as the number 2 seed in the American League as the games begin today but the Oakland Athletics are a game back and hold the tiebreaker with a better division record so if they win and the Twins lose, the Twins would move to the 3rd seed.
Today’s game has Twins LHP Rich Hill (2-2, 3.27 ERA, 1.21 WHIP) against Reds RHP Sonny Gray (5-3, 3.73 ERA, 1.22 WHIP) at 2:10pm on Fox Sports North. Every game today is scheduled to begin at 2:10pm CST. That makes it fun because of all these playoff scenarios. There are still 2 playoff spots to be had in the National League, the 2nd Wild Card team and the who finishes 2nd in the National League Central so the St. Louis Cardinals, the Milwaukee Brewers, the San Francisco Giants & the Philadelphia Phillies are still alive with 1 game to play.
Oh…boy! It should be a fun day of baseball, TwinsTakers!
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