The Minnesota Twins will look for a sweep today as they’ve pounded Kansas City Royals pitching to the tune of 11 runs in each of the first 2 games of this series.
Some more #Twinsactions to announce first, though:
The Minnesota Twins place RHP Sam Dyson on the 10-Day Injured List (IL) with right biceps tendinitis and recall LHP Devin Smeltzer from AAA Rochester Red Wings to start today’s game.
If you didn’t see it, the Arizona Diamondbacks were beating up on the Washington Nationals last night and, with the Nats giving up so many runs, they decided to put a position player in to pitch in the bottom of the 8th and that pitcher was OF Gerardo Parra. It was 11-4 when he began to pitch but he couldn’t get an out & gave up 5 runs so they called in another position player to relieve him and THAT position player was former Twins 2B Brian Dozier and his battery mate was former Twins C Kurt Suzuki. Dozier gave up a bases-loaded double then got Ketel Marte to fly out and the next batter was former Twins SS/2B/3B/OF Eduardo Escobar and it took just 2 pitches for Esco to go yard for his 24th HR of the season, which is a career high for him. #FogoPower How about that?
Dozier did get a popout and a flyout to end the inning so his ERA is only 18.00. He also has a WHIP of 2.00. He gave up 2 hits in one inning, a double and a HR so he’s just throwing meatballs up there.
We shared it to our Facebook page. Here’s the link (https://bit.ly/2M0uEtM).
Alright, back to the real game, right?
Believe it or not, this game was a pitcher’s duel for the majority of the game. There were only 5 hits through the 1st 5 innings and the first run didn’t score until the bottom of the 6th inning when Luis Arraez, who singled to lead off the inning, advanced to 2nd on a wild pitch then advanced to 3rd on Nelson Cruz’ groundout to 3rd and then scored on Eddie Rosario’s sacrifice fly to right-center field.
Devin Smeltzer pitched 6 scoreless innings allowing just 2 hits & 1 walk while striking out 4. He came out for the 7th and walked the leadoff batter and that’s when Twins manager Rocco Baldelli decided to make a Pitching Change to RHP Tyler Duffey and he struck out Hunter Dozier for his 300th Career Strikeout then got an inning-ending double play on a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out play getting Jorge Soler at the plate and C Jason Castro got Andrew Gordon at 2nd base!
Jason Castro then doubled the Twins lead on his 11th HR of the season, a solo shot to center field.
RHP Sergio Romo pitched a perfect 8th with one strikeout.
The Twins added a run in the bottom of the 8th when an Eddie Rosario single off the limestone overhang in right field scored Luis Arraez who walked.
Then LHP Taylor Rogers came into the game and got 2 groundouts and a flyout that RF Jake Cave had to dive to catch to end the game to give LHP Devin Smeltzer his 1st MLB Win!!!
Bring Out the Brooms!!! SWEEP!!! SWEEP!!! SWEEP!!!
#MNTwins Pitching:
Smeltzer: 6IP 4H 0R/ER 1BB 4K 1 Win
Duffey: 1IP 0H 0R/ER 0BB 2K
Romo: 1IP 0H 0R/ER 0BB 1K
Rogers: 1IP 0H 0R/ER 0BB 0K 1 Save
#MNTwins Hitting:
Arraez-2-3-BB, 2 R
Rosie-2-3-2 RBI
Castro-HR (11)
Cave-H
Cruz/Kepler-BB, K
Cron/Adrianza-K
Sano-2 K
Some great defense from the middle infield today, too. Adrianza and Arraez made a couple A+ plays.
The Twins will begin a 3-game series against the Atlanta Braves tomorrow night at 7:10pm and it will be RHP Jake Odorizzi (12-5, 3.73 ERA, 1.19 WHIP) against Braves RHP Mike Soroka (10-2, 2.37 ERA, 1.11 WHIP) on Fox Sports North.
