The #MNTwins had a rough morning with the news of RHP Michael Pineda’s 60-game suspension due to violating the MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention & Treatment Program with a substance that he received from a friend/acquaintance that he wanted to lose some weight.
That’s a huge blow to a team that has had trouble with their starting pitching since the All-Star Break other than Pineda, who was on a roll.
They also lost Nelson Cruz & Jake Cave to day-to-day injuries in last night’s game.
That being said. I don’t know about you but I figured this team would respond the way they have all season and that’s by playing a tough ballgame against a division opponent who’s chasing them in the standings. Their resiliency is a big reason why they’re currently leading the American League Central division by 5.5 games with 21 games to play.
So…how would RHP Jake Odorizzi and the Twins come out in a big game?
It might’ve been good for the Twins to have Jake Odorizzi pitching today because, next to Pineda, he’s the starting pitcher that’s pitching best in this rotation and it feels like he wants to be the guy to get this team going in the right direction again, especially from a starting pitching standpoint.
Jake came out on fire, striking out the side in the top of the first on 12 pitches then, in the bottom of the first, Mitch Garver hit his 27th HR of the season out to left-center field to put the home team up 1-0 early!!! That HR made him the Minnesota Twins franchise leader for most Home Runs in a single season from the catcher position so, yes, another HR Record for the 2019 Minnesota Twins.
Jake had 2 more strikeouts in the top of the 3rd for a total of 6 through 3 innings. His offense loaded the bases with 2 outs in the bottom of the 3rd with Eddie Rosario coming to the plate. He worked the count to 3-1 then hit the next pitch, which would’ve been ball four, to left field to end the inning. It likely would’ve also taken the starting pitcher out of the game and got into Cleveland’s bullpen in the 3rd inning. Unfortunately, Eddie wants to swing 99% of the time so instead of taking a 2-0 lead with the possibility of a big inning, the inning ended and the Twins were still only up 1-0.
*Eddie Rosario is a great hitter. He would be an outstanding hitter if he brought some discipline to his at-bats. Do you think with OF Alex Kirilloff pretty close to being ready for a promotion to the Twins soon (he’s on an absolute tear right now), would the Twins Front Office consider using him as part of a trade to get a starting pitcher? Would the Mets be interested in something like that for RHP Noah Syndergaard? Hmmm…
Odorizzi kept rolling through the 5th, now with a total of 10 strikeouts but trouble started in the 6th when he walked 2 straight batters after getting Lindor to ground out for the first out. He then allowed a game-tying double to Yasiel Puig and was removed in favor of RHP Tyler Duffey. Duffey has been pitching great for a good while now and had 24 strikeouts in his last 13.1 innings since the beginning of August. He kept that going by striking out Jason Kipnis with runners on 2nd & 3rd. He then threw a wild pitch that scored Carlos Santana to give the Indians a 2-1 lead but then came back from a 3-0 count to strike out Franmil Reyes to end the inning.
In the bottom of the 6th, with Miguel Sano on 2nd (double (18)), C.J. Cron was down 0-2 and Cleveland C Roberto Perez called for an outside slider and right before the pitch, he moved way outside to receive the pitch. He wasn’t behind any part of the plate. The pitch was way outside and the umpire called it a strike. JUST A BIT OUTSIDE….
Nelson Cruz, who was scratched from the lineup with wrist soreness, was ejected from the game after that strike call.
RHP Zack Littell allowed a 1-out single then got a force out that Cron made a good defensive play on to get the lead runner but speedy Greg Allen was now on 1st and he ended up stealing 2nd base with Francisco Lindor at the plate but Littell got him to fly out to end the top of the 7th.
Willians “La Tortuga” Astudillo then led off the bottom of the 7th a single that Lindor got to but couldn’t make the throw. He then attempted a throw to 1st after seeing Astudillo turn the wrong way (or something) and the balled rolled out of his hand so Astudillo ran to 2nd but the umpires said time was called and Astudillo had to return to 1st base. The umpires were not popular tonight.
Jonathan Schoop then tripled off the center field wall to tie the game and the umpires were forgotten about. Cleveland manager Terry Francona then went into his bullpen moves changing to LHP Oliver Perez to face Max Kepler, who walked, then changing to RHP Nick Goody to face Mitch Garver and…on a fastball down the middle, the new Minnesota Twins HR Catcher King broke his own record with his 2nd HR of the night (28) to the opposite field and it was 5-2!!! 4 runs is a lot of fun!!!
RHP Sergio Romo came in to pitch the 8th and he got the first 2 outs but then gave up a double to Puig then Kipnis singled Puig in to make it 5-3 but Romo struck out Reyes to end the top of the 8th.
Twins rookie OF LaMonte Wade came in to replace Luis Arraez in the top of the 8th as a defensive replacement. He went to right field and Rosario moved to left field. Wade then led off the bottom of the 8th with a walk and was then pinch-run for by Byron Buxton. Nice game, LaMonte! HA!
LHP Taylor Rogers came in for the save and made a great play going to his left on a ground ball back to the pitcher then had to run to first to make the out himself because C.J. Cron was shifted about halfway between 1st & 2nd. He then got Perez to fly out to right field and struck out Jordan Luplow on a down and in curveball for a game-ending swinging strikeout.
The Twins once again lead the division by 6.5 games and the number to clinch is now 14. That’s 14 Twins wins and/or Indians losses to clinch a division title and they’ll look to change that number tomorrow with RHP Randy Dobnak on the mound at 1:10pm on Fox Sports North pitching against Indians RHP Mike Clevinger.
