The #MNTwins were looking to get back in the win column again tonight against the pesky Oakland Athletics.
They have Jose Berrios on the mound as he’ll look to also get back into the win column as he hasn’t won a start since June 6th at Cleveland. He’s pitched okay during that span, very well in the rest of June but just okay in July so far. He’ll face Oakland LHP Brett Anderson.
Berrios had to get himself out of some self-imposed damage in the first inning. He ended up striking out 3 but left the bases loaded.
The Minnesota Twins offense took little time to announce their arrival as Mitch Garver hit his 17th HR of the season on the 2nd pitch of the bottom of the 1st then Nelson Cruz hit his 19th of the season after Jorge Polanco grounded out. Cruz’ HR went to dead center field into the juniper plants. 2-0 Twins! Miguel Sano added a double but was left at 3rd.
Berrios kept getting in and out of trouble all night long including when he was replaced by RHP Tyler Duffey in the 6th with runners on 1st & 2nd but Duffey struck out Barreto to end the inning with the score still 2-0 Twins.
The Twins offense, after that awesome 1st inning, was shut down for the next 4 innings, not getting a baserunner until Mitch Garver walked to lead off the 6th but that was quickly erased by a double-play ball from Jorge Polanco.
Tyler Duffey stayed in the game to begin the 7th inning and he walked the leadoff hitter then got 3B Matt Chapman to pop out for the 1st out. That’s when Twins manager Rocco Baldelli brought in RHP Zack Littell to pitch to 1B Matt Olson. He struck him out but he hung a slider to RF Mark Canha and that ball didn’t come back. The game was tied. The next hitter, CF Ramon Laureano, hit a 95mph fastball out to right-center field and all of a sudden a 2-0 Twins lead was gone and the A’s led 3-2! This is what the Twins were doing to teams in the first half of the season.
But….this is still a powerful Twins offense and we saw why when Miguel Sano got his own hanging slider and he deposited it into the left-field seats, tying the game at 3! Can’t tell if it went upper deck or not but it traveled a long way! Watch the pitcher’s reaction!
After Oakland changed pitchers, Marwin grounded out but C.J. Cron singled and Oakland made another pitching change. Rocco pinch-ran for Cron with Ehire Adrianza then Max Kepler singled to get Adrianza to 3rd base. Schoop hit a sacrifice fly to short left field near the baseline and Adrianza tagged up to try to score. The throw wasn’t close and the Twins led 4-3! Kepler was picked off to end the 7th. The pitcher, Ryan Buchter, held his delivery for what seemed like forever and Kepler appeared to just be leaning towards going when the pitcher threw over to first.
Blake Parker pitched the 8th for the Twins. He allowed a 1-out single but struck out Jurickson Profar then got Marcus Semien to ground out to end the inning.
The Twins ended up loading the bases in the bottom of the 8th but Marwin Gonzalez softly grounded out to 1st to leave the bases loaded.
Into the game came LHP Taylor “Mr.” Rogers to pitch the 9th. He’s been so good, we just believe he’ll get the job done. He got Matt Chapman to ground out on the 1st pitch then he struck out Matt Olson but he hit Mark Canha with a pitch to put him on first base. CF Ramon Laureano was the Athletics last hope and Rogers had him & them down to their last strike but he left a slider up and it was sent to left field for a double and Oakland had runners on 2nd & 3rd with 2 outs and DH Khris Davis coming to the plate. On the first pitch, he hit a liner to the right of 1B Ehire Adrianza and he only got a piece of the ball so it slowly rolled past him and 2 runs scored to put the A’s back in the lead at 5-4! WOW!
Two batters later, the inning ended on a groundout to 2nd.
The Twins had Adrianza, Kepler & Schoop coming to the plate to face RHP Liam Hendriks. Adrianza struck out but Kepler singled to right field to get the tying run on base. Jonathan Schoop than doubled down the left-field line so runners were on 2nd & 3rd with 1 out and Jake Cave coming to the plate. Rocco pinch-hit for Jake Cave with Thursday’s hero OF Eddie Rosario and the Eddie chants began to get louder and louder but Oakland decided to intentionally walk Rosie to bring Mitch Garver to the plate….
and he swung at the first pitch. He hit it hard but it was right to the shortstop for a game-ending 6-4-3 double play! WOW!!!
That is how it’s been going for these Twins lately! Many chances to change and maybe win the game and the team that’s been winning gets the breaks and ends up winning the game while the Twins have to wait for tomorrow to look for some redemption and a series split.
It was a helluva game! Looked like a crazy playoff game where the stakes are at their highest! It was fun but the end wasn’t the one we wanted. Nothing you can do about but move on! There’s another game tomorrow!
That game is at 1:10pm on FOX Sports North with RHP Michael Pineda (6-5, 4.38 ERA) on the mound against Oakland RHP Daniel Mengdon (5-1, 4.21 ERA).
Some people say Rocco’s move of Adrianza as a pinch-runner for Cron wasn’t necessary, adding that he isn’t a very fast runner anyways, and it ends up costing them because Cron isn’t at first base to make the defensive play on the game-winning hit. Adrianza is a defensive specialist so it’s hard to say Cron makes that play over Adrianza but, the main point is…we can all second-guess the manager’s moves.
The Twins managers and statisticians likely know who’s faster on the bases than whoever else. How can they not? The information is probably available so they have it and they’ve looked at it and they know it. It’s probably the same for defense, too.
