The #MNTwins come home after winning yet another series on the road, this one of the HUGE variety as they took 2 of 3 from the Cleveland Indians to get closer to the American League Central Division Title.
They continued their pursuit of one Title tonight against another Central Division opponent in the Chicago White Sox and they had their ace in RHP Jose Berrios on the mound and he’s looking more like the ace we believe he is in his last couple starts. How’d he do tonight pitching against White Sox RHP Reynaldo Lopez? Let’s find out!
Well, Jose didn’t inspire a lot of belief in the 1st 2 innings as he allowed a run in each to put his team down 2-0.
White Sox CF Leury Garcia singled to lead off the game and 3B Yoan Moncada followed with his 30th double of the season advancing Garcia to 3rd. DH Jose Abreu hit a sacrifice fly to right-center. Twins CF LaMonte Wade caught it and quickly threw home but the throw was cut off by IF Marwin Gonzalez, in his return to action, so he could throw to 3rd to get Moncada trying to advance to 3rd. We call that bad base running because he was out by a couple of feet. Oops! 1-0 White Sox.
In the top of the 2nd, C James McCann led off the inning with his 17th HR of the season to left-center field and it was 2-0 White Sox. Was Jose Berrios regressing? It kind of looked like it but after that HR, he set down18 of the next 23 batters before being replaced by RHP Tyler Duffey with 1 out in the 8th inning. Here’s what it looked like:
1st: 1B (Garcia), 2B (Moncada), SF-Out at 3rd, K
2nd: Groundout, K, BB (Sanchez), Groundout
3rd: Groundout, Groundout, K Looking
4th: Groundout, K, BB (Skole), Groundout
5th: Lineout, K, Flyout
6th: 1B (Moncada), Flyout, Pick Off at 1st, K
7th: Groundout, K, Error (E5), K
8th: 1B-Groundout for a final line of…
7.1 Innings 5 Hits 2 Runs 2 Earned Runs 2 Walks 8 Strikeouts (7 Swinging, 1 Looking) 1 HR (McCann)
So, did the Twins offense back up their ace?
In the bottom of the 2nd, Miguel Sano & Marwin Gonzalez singled then Luis Arraez singled to load the bases for Jorge Polanco, who hit a sacrifice fly of his own and Nelson Cruz followed that with a groundball RBI-single to tie the game at 2!
It took until the bottom of the 5th for the Twins to score again as Jorge Polanco led off the inning with his 37th double of the season then advanced to 3rd on a bad defensive play after a flyout to left field where the ball got past 3B Yoan Moncada. Eddie Rosario struck out for the 2nd out then Mitch Garver sent some Garv Sauce off the right-center field wall to score Polanco from 3rd. 3-2 Twins.
In the next inning, Sano walked to lead off the inning then Marwin hit into a force out. Sano out at 2nd. Marwin safe at 1st. That brought CF LaMonte Wade to the plate and the kid is starting to figure out this Major League Baseball thing at the plate. He hit his 1st Home Run on Sunday and tonight, he hit his 1st Career 2-bagger over the head of LF Eloy Jimenez. Marwin advanced to 3rd. The White Sox made a Pitching Change to LHP Jace Fry and Luis Arraez greeted him with a crazy ground ball that spun so much it curved past Moncada for a 2-RBI single. 5-2 Twins.
The Minnesota Bullpen did the rest. Duffey needed just 4 pitches to get 2 outs to finish off the 8th. Sergio Romo allowed a solo HR to Jimenez (28) before striking out McCann looking then LHP Taylor “Mister” Rogers came in and got pinch-hitter Wellington Castillo to groundout to 3rd then he struck out Danny Mendick swinging on one of his nasty sliders. Maybe Mr. Rogers should try to get a sponsorship from White Castle with Nasty Sliders like that, huh?
The victory, Berrios’ 13th of the season, makes the Twins number to clinch just 8, now! That’s 8 Twins victories or Indians losses to Win the Division and get to the Postseason!
They’ll continue & try to win the 3-game series against the White Sox with LHP Martin Perez (10-7, 4.89 ERA, 1.47 WHIP) on the mound against Chicago LHP Ross Detwiler (2-5, 6.79 ERA, 1.67 WHIP) at 6:40pm on Fox Sports North.
