The Minnesota Twins played game 2 vs the Cleveland Guardians. They were trying to avoid going under .500 for the 1st time this season after losing 4-2 in their home opener on Thursday afternoon. RHP Joe Ryan (0-0, 1.69 ERA*, .750 WHIP**) was on the mound vs Cleveland’s starting pitcher RHP Carlos Carrasco (0-0, 5.40 ERA, 1.400 WHIP).
*ERA = Earned Run Average or the average number of runs allowed over 9 innings pitched.
*.5 – Or 1 of 10 Taylor Swift albums featured in The ERAs Tour (& soon to be 11 in Manuel Margot or 13 days & Swifties know that’s an important number. Manuel wasn’t in the starting lineup so… the Twins must NOT know how important number 13 is! 😃
**WHIP = Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched or how many baserunners a pitcher allows every inning.
Twinsactions
The Minnesota Twins acquired SS Diego Castillo from the Baltimore Orioles for cash.
In sad baseball news, Cleveland Guardians RHP & former American League Cy Young winner (2020)) Shane Bieber needs elbow surgery. That helps the Twins but it hurts baseball because Bieber is or has pitched like an ace for most of his Major League career. He was able to start the season and make 2 starts. He was 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA & a .920 WHIP. In 12.0 innings, he struck out 20 and didn’t allow a walk but he was also experiencing elbow pain & he’ll need Tommy John surgery. Ouch!
2024 Minnesota Twins Schedule
3-3
MLB Standings
3rd Place in AL Central
Here’s how both teams lined up:
Minnesota Twins Lineup:
Cleveland Guardians Lineup:
Game Recap
In the top of the 1st inning, Minnesota starter RHP Joe Ryan struck out Cleveland LF Steven Kwan on 3 pitches. That probably doesn’t happen very often. Then 2B Andrés Giménez grounded out to 2nd & 3B José Ramírez flew out to short right field. Joe Ryan needed just 11 pitches to get through his first inning.
In the bottom of the 1st, Twins 2B Edouard Julien struck out looking at a pitch that was outside:
SS Carlos Correa walked on 10 pitches. 1B Alex Kirilloff then tripled down the 1st baseline to score Carlos Correa from 1st and it was 1-0 with just 1 out. The scorer called it an error. We’ll see if that changes.*
*Kirilloff did get credit for a triple so that makes 3 straight games with a triple! He’s the 5th player in team history to do that.
The Twins put the contact play on so Kirilloff was off for the plate when Byron Buxton hit the ball and he was thrown out easily for the 2nd out. RF Max Kepler struck out swinging to end the 1st inning. Carrasco had to throw 31 pitches though.
Cleveland Guardians 0 | 1 Minnesota Twins
Joe Ryan started the 2nd inning by hitting Cleveland 1B Josh Naylor with a pitch then he got CF Tyler Freeman to ground into a fielder’s choice to get Naylor out at 2nd for the 1st out. RF Will Brennan hit a grounder to right field. Freeman advanced to 2nd. DH Bo Naylor flew out to deep right field for the 2nd out. It should’ve been a strikeout looking but the umpire missed it. Freeman tagged up & advanced to 3rd then C David Fry hit a 3-run home run to left field to put Cleveland up 3-1!
SS Bryan Rocchio grounded out to short to end the half-inning but all it took was one swing to change the game. 20 pitches, 31 total for Joe Ryan.
Cleveland Guardians 3 | 1 Minnesota Twins
Bottom of 2:
Twins DH Carlos Santana popped out to shallow right field for the 1st out. LF Matt Wallner struck out swinging for the 2nd out. C Ryan Jeffers few out to deep right center field to end the 2nd inning.
3rd inning:
Kwan struck out swinging again. 1 out. Giménez struck out swinging too. 2 outs. Ramírez singled on a roller up the middle but Josh Naylor struck out swinging to end the top of 3.
Twins 3B Willi Castro struck out looking on a pitch that was outside. Julien walked. Correa struck out swinging but Julien was off with the pitch to steal 2nd base. Kirilloff walked but Cleveland used a Mound Visit with Byron Buxton coming to the plate. The first pitch was away & outside but it was called a strike. The next two pitches were balls then Buxton got a pitch to hit but fouled it off then struck out swinging to end the inning. So… how different is that at-bat if the 1st pitch is called a ball correctly?
Cleveland Guardians 3 | 1 Minnesota Twins
4th inning:
Joe Ryan set ‘em down 1-2-3: swinging strikeout on high heat (Freeman), groundout to 2nd (Brennan) & another swinging strikeout (Bo Naylor.)
Cleveland RHP Nick Sandlin replaced RHP Carlos Carrasco:
Carlos Carrasco
3IP 1H 1R 1ER 3BB 6K
No Decision (Only 3 innings pitched)
(78 pitches, 42 strikes)
Kepler flew out to left field for the 1st out then both Carlos Santana & Matt Wallner struck out. Santana struckout swinging at a strike but the count was 0-2 & it should’ve been 1-1 so he would’ve at least one more pitch in his at-bat. Wallner struck out looking at pitches that were both* below the strike zone**:
*Strike 2 **Strike 3
Suffice it to say, the Twins players & coaches were not happy with the home plate umpire. Did you know Major League Baseball changed a rule that doesn’t allow the computers (iPads, etc..) in the dugouts to access video of balls & strikes but the coaches can access the video in their offices so David Popkins knew how bad the game was being called.
AND… did you know that you can see the game pitch by pitch on the game’s video page?
The Minnesota Twins were 1-for-12 with 3 walks & 8 strikeouts(5 swinging, 3 looking) through the 4th inning. The hit was an RBI-Triple. The rest of the way they were 1-for-17 with 4 walks & 6 strikeouts (3 swinging, 3 looking). The 1 hit was a Carlos Correa 2-out single in the bottom of the 9th. There were also at least 8 bad ball/strike calls from the home plate umpires.
The Twins were 0-for-11 for the game with runners in scoring position leaving 11 men on base.
Minnesota Twins starting pitcher was replaced by RHP Jorge Alcala to start the 7th inning:
Joe Ryan
6IP 5H 3R 3ER 0BB 7K 1HR
(78 pitches, 42 strikes)
Alcala pitched two good innings. He allowed just 1 hit but no walks and he struck out 2 batters.
There were a few good defensive plays but all in all, the Minnesota Twins just couldn’t get the big hit when they needed it.
Here’s the Ump Scorecard from @UmpScorecards for home plate umpire Brennan Miller:
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Final Score
Cleveland Guardians 3 | 1 Minnesota Twins
W-Nick Sandlin (1-0) L-Joe Ryan (0-1) S-Emmanuel Clase (4)
Pitching
Starters
MN:
RHP Joe Ryan:
6IP 5H 3R/3ER 0BB 1K 1HR – Loss (1)
CLE:
Carlos Carrasco:
3IP 1H 1R/1ER 3BB 6K – No Decision
Bullpen
MN:
RHP Jorge Alcala:
2IP 1H 0R/0ER 0BB 2K
RHP Jay Jackson:
1IP 1H 0R/0ER 0BB 2K
CLE:
RHP Nick Sandlin:
1IP 0H 0R/0ER 0BB 2K – W (2-0)
RHP Cade Smith:
1.1IP 0H 0R/0ER 1BB 1K – Hold (1)
RHP Hunter Gaddis:
0.2IP 0H 0R/0ER 0BB 2K – Hold (3)
RHP Scott Barlow:
0.2IP 0H 0R/0ER 2BB 0K – Hold (4)
RHP Tyler Beede:
1IP 0H 0R/0ER 1BB 1K – Hold (2)
RHP Emmanuel Clase:
1IP 1H 0R/0ER BB 2K – Save (4)
Hitting
Home Runs
MN:
None
CLE:
David Fry (1)
Triples
MN:
Alex Kirilloff (3)
CLE:
None
Doubles
MN:
None
CLE:
Brayan Rocchio (1)
2-Out RBI
MN (Inning):
None
CLE:
David Fry (3), 2nd
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Next Up
The Minnesota Twins welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers to Target Field once again. Will a bad start to the season for the Twins offense and one of the best teams coming into their park motivate the Minnesota Twins to play better baseball?
Will Twins starting pitcher Bailey Ober’s last start motivate him to pitch better? Is Dodgers LHP James Paxton a different pitcher after all of his injuries &/or have the Dodgers helped him get back to the potential ace pitcher he was earlier in his career?
The biggest question is will an eagle attack/land on James Paxton again at Target Field and how soon will they show that footage? In the pregame show? Or when Paxton takes the mound? Or both?
RHP Bailey Ober
(0-1, 54.00 ERA, 7.50 WHIP)
vs
LHP James Paxton
(1-0, 0.00 ERA, 1.80 WHIP)
*ERA=Earned Run Average, WHIP=Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched
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