The Minnesota Twins won their first road series and now come home to start an 8-game homestand with 2 against the St. Louis Cardinals, 4 against the Cleveland Indians & 2 against former Twins bench coach Derek Shelton’s Pittsburgh Pirates.
Tonight the Twins have 5th starter RHP Homer Bailey on the mound and CF Byron Buxton returns to the lineup. They’ll face Cardinals RHP Carlos Martinez who is also their 5th starter. Homer Bailey became kind of a different pitcher last season after struggling from the end of the 2014 season through basically 2018 due to arm (elbow ligament then Tommy John surgery) and knee injuries. Last season, he signed a minor-league deal with the Kansas City Royals with an invite to Spring Training and he’s revived his career since then and doing very well after being traded to the Oakland Athletics a couple of weeks before the trade deadline last season. The Twins saw that and kept their eye on him as an option for this season and, well, here we are.
Bailey didn’t look great in the start last Wednesday in the one exhibition game the Twins played in Chicago against the Cubs (3.0IP 5 H 4 R/ER 2 BB 3 K & 3 HR) but it was the first real competition in about 20 weeks so we probably shouldn’t take much from that, right?
It is kind of curious that Twins LHP Rich Hill who is now supposed to be the Twins 4th starter is pitching tomorrow night, though. The Twins wanted to give him another day to rest which is why they pushed him back from starting the 2nd game of the season on Saturday and had RHP Randy Dobnak start.
A lot of good stuff happens on Opening Day and this year is no different for the Minnesota Twins. They pregame had special videos celebrating the ones we’ve lost in 2020 (including prospect Ryan Costello who died suddenly last November), 60 Seasons of Twins Baseball and the Heroes of COVID-19, namely the Nurses, Doctors and Medical personnel who have bravely walked into work every day to help the thousands of people who have contracted Coronavirus.
Here are the lineups:
Homer Bailey allowed just a walk in the 1st inning, getting a groundout and 2 flyouts. The Twins got two 1-out singles from 3B Josh Donaldson & SS Jorge Polanco then Cardinals P Carlos Martinez tried to pickoff Donaldson at 2nd which allowed both runners to advance a base. DH Nelson Cruz popped up to 1st for the 2nd out which brought up LF Eddie Rosario and he was intentionally walked* to load the bases and get to Mitch Garver. That’s pretty crazy but apparently the Cardinals don’t want to pitch to Rosario in big spots or, at least, they don’t want Carlos Martinez to pitch to him or… they think Mitch Garver is an easier out as a right-handed hitter. Garver ended up grounding out to 3rd to end the 1st inning so good call, right? It’d be nice to know what their thoughts were there.
*Because Rosie walked here or was walked here, play-by-play announcer Dick Bremer had noted that Josh Donaldson had 100 walks in the 2019 season. Rosario has said he’d like to walk more this season so in Rosie’s next at-bat, Rosie took a close pitch outside then he goes up 3-0 and Dick says, “Talked about Josh Donaldson walking 100 times last year, Rosario may do that.” Analyst & former Twins player Roy Smalley replied with, “Calm Down Over There.”
In the 2nd inning, Bailey got a line out and a strikeout before walking RF Dexter Fowler and then getting a lineout/grounder back to the pitcher. The Twins led off the inning with a Luis Arraez single to right field followed by a Miguel Sano double down the 3rd base line advancing Arraez to 3rd. Buxton came up for his 1st at-bat of the season and he hit a grounder to the shortstop Paul DeJong and he thought he had a chance to get Arraez at home but, if you see the play, he doesn’t really make a quick throw. He kind of takes his time and Arraez makes a great slide to beat the throw so the Cardinals don’t get an out. Max Kepler singles in Sano from 2nd and Buxton advances to 3rd but he scores on Josh Donaldson’s sacrifice fly. Jorge Polanco then comes up and homers to right field for the 1st Home Run at Target Field in the 2020 season. 5-0 Twins.
Bailey allowed a double in the 3rd inning but struck out the side other than that hit. The Twins went down 1-2-3. In the 4th, Bailey allowed a 1-out single but then got a double play to end the inning. The Twins got a Home Run from Josh Donaldson, his 1st of the season and as a Twin but his 11th at Target Field overall because well, he used to terrorize the Twins at the plate when he’d play here with the Blue Jays, hitting 9 over 11 games from 2015 to 2017. Before that, he only hit 1 in 8 games from 2010 to 2014. He didn’t play at Target Field in 2018 and didn’t hit any home runs last season when he played for the Braves but we can finally say Welcome Back to Target Field and actually mean it. 6-0 Twins.
The top of the 5th began with a Dexter Fowler single to right field and LF Tyler O’Neill then put the Cardinals on the board with his 2nd HR of the season to center field. 6-2 Twins
The Twins didn’t get a hit after RHP Carlos Martinez was removed from the game with 2 outs in the 4th inning. The Cardinals got 3 hits including a Tommy Edman solo HR off of RHP Trevor May that Byron Buxton probably should’ve caught as it bounced off his glove and over the center field wall. Trevor May struck out the side in that 8th inning.
RHP Tyler Clippard pitched a scoreless 6th, giving up a single. RHP Cody Stashak pitched the 7th and only gave up a 2-out double while striking out 1 and RHP Sergio Romo, who was warming up when Trevor May was on the mound in the 8th, ended pitching the 9th and allowed a baserunner on a hit by pitch but ended the game with a swinging strikeout to earn his 1st save of the season and Homer Bailey his first win of the season and as a Twin.
Bailey’s Pitching Line: 5.0 IP 4 H 2 R/ER 2 BB 4 K 1 HR 1 WIN
Some people wonder why a healthy LHP Taylor Rogers wasn’t brought into the game. We figured it was because Romo was already warmed up but after checking an Aaron Gleeman article on The Athletic, our theory was verified as you can see from this quote:
Baldelli explained after the game that Rogers going unused, and Sergio Romo getting the save, was simply about Romo having already gotten “up and hot” when the Twins were ahead 6-2. Tommy Edman’s homer off Trevor May made it 6-3, but Baldelli decided to stick with Romo — who has 129 career saves — rather than warming up Rogers. — Aaron Gleeman
Same teams, same time tomorrow as:
Twins LHP Rich Hill takes the mound against Cardinals RHP Daniel Ponce de Leon at 7:10pm on Fox Sports North.
