The #MNTwins won Game 1 2-0 behind a dominant pitching performance from their bullpen with 3 innings from LHP Devin Smeltzer, 2 innings (and a Win) from RHP Zack Littell, 1.2 innings from RHP Tyler Duffey, 0.2 innings from RHP Sergio Romo and 1.2 innings from LHP Taylor Rogers.
So…what happened in Game 2?
Jorge Polanco followed his big Game 1 with a 1st inning single and then scored when Eddie Rosario homered (29) to right field to put the @Twins up 2-0.
LHP Lewis Thorpe got the start for the Twins and struggled big time in the 1st inning going walk (Lindor), double (Mercado), RBI-single (Santana), walk to load the bases, walk to bring in another run but then struck out the next 3 batters to get out of the inning with the game tied at 2 instead of what could’ve been a lot worse.
Thorpe’s 2nd inning was a little smoother although he allowed a leadoff walk. He then got Francisco Lindor to ground into a 4-3 double play with Jonathan Schoop fielding the ball & quickly stepping on 2nd base while throwing to 1st. Oscar Mercado then doubled and a Wild Pitch advanced him to 3rd but Thorpe got Carlos Santana to ground out to 2nd to end the inning with the game still tied at 2.
In the 3rd, Thorpe left a pitch up and that ball is now at home with a lucky Indians fan off the bat of Jordan Luplow (13). After he hit it, he flipped his bat back towards C Jason Castro and the home plate umpire almost hitting both of them and Castro wasn’t happy about it. The next batter, Franmil Reyes struck out swinging and slammed his bat on the ground and Castro wasn’t happy about that, either. The announcers were saying he probably wasn’t happy because a bat can easily send broken pieces up so Castro probably said don’t do that near me and there’s was an exchange of words so, the rivalry is getting good.
Then, in the 4th, Thorpe came back out as Rocco was trying to get as many innings out of him as possible and he got the first two batters out but Lindor singled then Mercado hit his 11th HR of the season to put the Indians up 5-2. RHP Cody Stashak was summoned from the bullpen and he got out of the inning on 1 pitch.
At this point, I received a tweet responding to Thorpe saying this was another loss we can blame on Rocco and Thorpe was struggling in the 3rd so why bring him out for the 4th.
How many of you think this offense doesn’t have a chance to come back from 3 runs down with 5 innings left in the game? Would you stop watching any game this team was playing if that were the case because I know I wouldn’t?
But…the Indians had set down 12 Twins in a row until Polanco singled in the top of the 6th. Nelson “The BoomStick” Cruz then came to the plate and his bat made a loud noise for his 37th HR of the season and the 3-run deficit became a 1-run deficit…Just Like That!!!
RHP Brusdar Graterol then entered the game to pitch the 6th inning (& maybe more). His first pitch showed 100mph on the radar gun & was clearly in the strike zone but it was called a ball. The 2nd pitch was the same thing. The number of missed calls on balls & strikes is getting out of hand. It’d be one thing if they were close but these pitches are 3-4 inches in or out of the zone. I don’t know what happens with the umpires. I would imagine (& hope) they go over the whole game to see how they did with the umpires committee (?) so they know where they screwed up and can improve upon it. (I’ll put the picture of the pitches location in the comments.)
Brusdar came back to strike out that first batter, got a groundout to 3rd on Lindor then struck out Mercado for a 1-2-3 inning. He then came out for the 7th and went groundout, strikeout of Puig and a groundout for his 2nd straight 1-2-3 inning (or should that be 4-5-6?)
So, the game headed to the top of the 8th. Jonathan Schoop singled to leadoff the inning and was replaced by pinch-runner Ian Miller. A Terry Francona pitching change brought LHP Oliver Perez in to face Max Kepler. He got Kepler to ground into a force out but Perez, for some reason, didn’t try to catch the throw back to 1st base so Kepler was safe at 1st. The very next pitch was a Jorge Polanco’s 36th double of the season and the Game Was Tied at 5. Nelson Cruz was intentionally walked to face Eddie Rosario and Eddie worked a walk, which hasn’t happened very often this season and in the last couple of months. That walk loaded the bases for one Miguel Sano!
But…Terry Francona would make another pitching change to RHP Nick Goody and, just like Jorge, Miguel swung at the first pitch AND, just like Jorge, Miguel connected on that first pitch but, different than Jorge, Miguel’s ball left the yard and….Just Like That, the Twins led 9-5! How About That? So…do we blame this on Rocco, too?
RHP Trevor May was brought in to pitch the 8th. He got Reyes to line out to a leaping Arraez for the first out. Beware of the Leaping Luis! Trevor then got a strikeout of Ryan Flaherty (Trevor May Strike You Out!) and got Bradley Zimmer to ground out to 3rd to end the 8th, 1-2-3!
Trevor May stayed in for the 9th and went groundout, flyout and flyout to end the game and the comeback was COMPLETE and so was the DoubleHeader SWEEP!!! So…uhhh….yeah. Don’t give up on the Twins team!
They’ll go for the series sweep tomorrow and really tighten the grip on the Division lead. The Twins did announce that they were moving RHP Jose Berrios’ start back to Monday instead of today’s game and RHP Randy Dobnak will start the game today against RHP Shane Bieber at 12:10pm, which is after I’m posting this and, as of right now, the Twins trail 2-1 after Miguel Sano’s 29th HR of the season cut the Cleveland lead in half. Cleveland got their runs on 2 RBI Forceouts in the 1st inning.
