The #MNTwins tried to salvage a split in the 4-game series with the Oakland Athletics after a tough loss last night.
They are also trying to avoid their 2nd 3-game losing streak after losing their 3rd consecutive game earlier this week when they lost to the New York Mets on Wednesday afternoon.
The Minnesota Twins also finalized a couple of #Twinsactions by completing trades of RHPs Mike Morin to the Philadelphia Phillies and Matt Magill to the Seattle Mariners for cash consideration. Also, LHP Adalberto Mejia was claimed by the Los Angeles Angels.
The Twins now have 4 open spots on the 40-man roster so they’re definitely ready for some trades and/or callups.
The Twins had RHP Michael Pineda on the mound against Athletics RHP Daniel Mengdon. Pineda began the game by striking out the first 2 batters then getting the 3rd out when Matt Olson tried to turn a single into a double and he was thrown out by RF Marwin Gonzalez at 2nd base. Jorge Polanco just had to catch the throw and wait for Olson to slide into his tag.
The Twins got back-to-back doubles from CF Max Kepler (23) and Jorge Polanco (27) to score the 1st run of the game right away in the 1st inning.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Ehire Adrianza doubled with 1 out then Jason Castro walked and the lineup turned over to Max Kepler and he didn’t waste any time. He hit the first pitch out to right field for his 24th HR of the season and put the Twins up 4-0 but we’ve learned the Oakland Athletics will battle back into games just like the Twins do so…they’ll have to try to keep them from doing that.
Pineda did that for the most part, allowing just walks but walks have a way of eventually coming back to “haunt” you and in the 5th, that’s what happened. He walked Jurickson Profar with 1 out and C Josh Phegley homered to left to cut the lead in half at 4-2. Marcus Semien & Matt Chapman followed with singles then Semien stole 3rd base but Big Mike struck out Matt Olson then got Mark Canha to ground out to end the inning with no further damage.
The Twins responded by hitting 3 straight singles in the bottom of the 5th, scoring Marwin Gonzalez on the 3rd one then Jason Castro walked to load the bases. Max Kepler came to the plate and he hit a ground ball to first for the quick tag of 1st base and the throw home to tag Luis Arraez before he could score. 5-2 Twins. Jorge Polanco then lined out to 3rd to end the 5th inning. Just 1 run as the ball seemed to just go to Oakland no matter what.
Michael Pineda came out to begin the 6th and he got the Ramon Laureano for his 8th strikeout but he then walked to Khris Davis for his 5th walk of the game and with 109 pitches thrown, Rocco decided it was time to go to his bullpen. He called for RHP Ryne Harper and he allowed a double to Robbie Grossman that advanced Khris Davis to 3rd. Oakland pinch-hit Chad Pinder for Jurickson Profar and Pinder hit a sacrifice fly to center field to get the run the Twins scored back and make it 5-3! Harper got out of the inning with no further damage.
The Twins offense had 2 on with 2 outs but Luis Arraez ended up grounding out to short on a weird play. SS Marcus Semien had to dive to his right to get the ball then throw quickly to 2nd base. That made Chad Pinder have to dive to his right to catch the ball and the play was called safe but Oakland challenged the call and they overturned it and called Marwin out to end the 6th.
RHP Trevor May was called upon to pitch the 7th. He walked Marcus Semien on 5 pitches then Matt Chapman doubled so Oakland had runners on 2nd & 3rd with no outs. May struck out Matt Olson then a Wild Pitch allowed Semien to score. May then struck out Mark Canha and Ramon Laureano to end the 7th. 5-4 Twins.
The Twins offense went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 7th and Trevor May came back out to pitch the 8th. He got Davis to fly out to begin the inning but then walked Grossman. Former Twin Chris Herrmann pinch-hit for Chad Pinder and he doubled off the top of the right-center field wall, missing a HR by about 3 feet. Marwin Gonzalez got to the ball pretty quickly but then somehow tripped before he could throw the ball and Grossman scored to tie the game at 5.
Franklin Barreto pinch-ran for Chris Herrmann at 2nd base and a passed ball allowed him to advance to 3rd base and Josh Phegley was then able to hit a sacrifice fly to score Barreto and give Oakland a 6-5 lead. Marcus Semien then walked and Rocco made a pitching change to Zack Littell, who was now pitching in his 3rd straight game, but he was still able to strike out Matt Chapman to end the 8th inning.
Jorge Polanco hit a ball off the right-center field wall and reach 2nd base with the scorer calling it an error on Ramon Laureano. Cruz then looked to have a single up the middle but Marcus Semien got to it and was still able to throw Cruz out for the 1st out. Polanco advanced to 3rd on the play. Rosie then popped out to 3rd on the first pitch and Miguel Sano struck out to end the inning with the score still 6-5 Oakland.
RHP Kohl Stewart came in to pitch the 9th and he walked Matt Olson to lead off the inning but then got Canha to fly out and finished off the inning by striking out both Ramon Laureano & Khris Davis swinging to give his team a chance in the bottom of the 9th.
The Twins had to try to tie the game against one of the hottest relievers in the game in RHP Liam Hendriks but the Twins got to him in the 9th last night so…they knew they could get to him again.
Marwin Gonzalez flew out to left on the first pitch. Luis Arraez then singled to left field. He may have been able to get to 2nd but with 1 out, he thought better of it and went back to first. Ehire Adrianza tripled off the right field wall to tie the game at 6 and now, the winning run was at 3rd base with 1 out so, of course, Jason Castro struck out but that brought up Maximillian Kepler and, like he and so many Twins do, he hit the first pitch he saw to left-center field and a TWINS WALK-OFF WIN!!!
WOW!!! WHAT A GAME!!! WHAT A SERIES!!!
After the game, the Twins sent RHP Zack Littell down to AAA and rumor has it, they are calling up @RocRedWings RHP Cody Stashak.
He’s been very good since being promoted to AAA on June 11th:
In 22.1 innings, he’s allowed 16 hits, 5 runs (4 earned runs) and 4 walks while striking out 31 for a 1.61 ERA, an .896 WHIP and a triple slash of .193/.227/.313 (Average/On-Base %/Slugging %). He’s also allowed 1 home run and 7 doubles. The lucky New Jersey native might have his MLB Debut against the New York Yankees as that’s who the Twins will begin a 3-game series with tomorrow night at 7:10pm with LHP Martin Perez on the mound pitching against LHP C.C. Sabathia.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=stasha000cod&type=pgl&year=2019
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