The Minnesota Twins looked to get back to .500 in Game 2 of this 4-game series vs the Seattle Mariners after losing 2-1 yesterday and they tried to do it behind one of their newest pitchers, RHP Sonny Gray, who they acquired on March 12th from the Cincinnati Reds for their 1st-round pick from the 2021 MLB Draft, RHP Chase Petty.
The Seattle Mariners will send young righty, Logan Gilbert to the mound for his 1st start in his 2nd major league season. He’s a flamethrower so let’s see if the Twins cool off those flames.
Enough talk…let’s play ball!!!
Lineups:
Game Recap
New Twins pitcher, RHP Sonny Gray needed just 10 pitches to get 2 flyouts to center field and a groundout to 2nd for a 1-2-3 1st inning.
Byron Buxton led off the bottom of the 1st by battling through an 8-pitch at-bat that ended in a strikeout. He fouled off 3 consecutive 2-2 pitches to allow his teammates to see what Logan Gilbert had to offer to them the rest of the day.
Twins Utility/Infielder Luis Arraez must’ve learned something from those 1st 8 pitches because he took the first 2 pitches for balls then unloaded on a fastball in the middle of the top of the strike zone out to right center field for his 1st Home Run of the season and he was excited about it for good reason because he doesn’t hit that many home runs but, it was also his 25th birthday.
Look at that ball fly into the right field seats. Beautiful!
SS Carlos Correa then walked on 5 pitches. 2B Jorge Polanco then struck out swinging and Alex Kirilloff also struck out swinging but the ball got away from the catcher so he alertly ran to 1st and the throw was offline, forcing the 1st baseman, Ty France, to extend to make the catch and he had to lift his foot off of 1st base and he missed the base when his foot came back down so Kirilloff was called safe.
The Mariners challenged the call. The replay kind of showed he did get to the base before Kirilloff so the call was changed to an out and the 1st inning was over. 1-0 Twins.
Mitch Haniger led off the top of the 2nd with a liner at 3B Luis Arraez and it took somewhat of a wicked hop that fooled him and got by him for an error. That’s no way to treat the birthday boy. Come on, Baseball Gods. Sonny Gray then struck out 3B Abraham Toro looking then induced a ground ball off the bat of LF Jarred Kelenic for a force out at 2nd. Kelenic then stole 2nd on a close play that Jorge Polanco thought the Twins should challenge but they decided not to after seeing the replay. CF Julio Rodríguez struck out looking to end the top of the 2nd.
Twins 1B Miguel Sanó flew out to right center field for the 1st out. RF Max Kepler grounded out to short. C Ryan Jeffers then singled on a slapper to right field as he made a good swing to hit the ball the other way. LF Nick Gordon worked a 10-pitch at-bat into a single to right field and Byron Buxton was hit by a pitch to load the bases but Luis Arraez flew out to left field to end the 2nd.
Seattle SS J.P. Crawford singled to right field then C Tom Murphy walked but 2B Adam Frazier grounded into a 5-3 double play with Luis Arraez fielding the ground ball, running to tag 3rd base then throwing out Frazier at 1st. Tom Murphy advanced to 2nd but Ty France got a clutch 2-out RBI-single to left field to tie the game at 1. DH Jesse Winker walked but Sonny Gray got Mitch Haniger to strike out looking to end the top of the 3rd. 1-1 Tie.
The Twins went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning with Correa & Polanco both striking out swinging and Kirilloff flying out to left field.
Both teams went down 1-2-3 in the 4th.
In the top of the 5th, Mariners C Tom Murphy blasted a HR over the center field wall to put his team up 2-1. Ty France also hit a 2-out single that ended Sonny Gray’s day. LHP Caleb Thielbar came in and induced a popout to end the half-inning. 2-1 Mariners.
Sonny Gray’s Final Pitching Line:
4.2IP 4H 2R/ER 2BB 4K 1HR in line for the Loss
The Twins went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 5th, strikeout, popout and groundout.
Thielbar allowed a 2-out walk to Jarred Kelenic but then picked him off with a great pickoff move to end the top of the 6th.
Seattle Mariners RHP Logan Gilbert sat down the last 10 batters he faced after he had hit Buxton with a pitch. He was relieved in the 6th by LHP Anthony Misiewics and he sat down the Twins 1-2-3 by striking out Carlos Correa & Jorge Polanco and getting Alex Kirilloff to flyout to center field.
Logan Gilbert’s Final Pitching Line:
5IP 3H 1R/ER 1BB 7K 1HR in line for the Win
New reliever, RHP Joe Smith took over for the Twins in the top of the 7th and he allowed two 1-out singles but followed it with back-to-back lineouts to get the Twins through the 7th. Former Twins pitcher, RHP Sergio Romo, also sat the Twins down 1-2-3 in the 7th, strikeout, groundout & popout.
Twins RHP Jharel Cotton made his Twins debut in the 8th. He walked the first batter he faced but then got a couple of flyouts and a swinging strikeout to get out of it. Seattle flamethrower RHP Andrés Muñoz took over for the Mariners in the bottom of the 8th and Twins LF Nick Gordon made him throw 6 pitches to earn a walk. A pickoff was attempted at 1st to no avail or maybe it was to delay throwing a pitch to Byron Buxton to try to get in his head and affect his at-bat but Byron Buxton had one thing on his mind and that was to get the barrel to the ball on the triple-digit heat Muñoz was throwing and He Did Not Miss It as he absolutely crushed that first pitch to the 3rd deck in left field to put the Twins up 3-2! WOW!!!
And the Statcast version to see how he turned a 100.5 mph pitch into his 1st HR of the season with an exit velocity of 112.3 mph!
The next 3 batters went down via flyout (Arraez) and 2 swinging strikeouts (Correa & Polanco) but the Twins had a 3-2 lead and they were going to RHP Tyler Duffey to close it out.
Would the fans think about former closer LHP Taylor Rogers or would The Stuff of Duff get the job done?
Seattle Mariners rookie CF Julio Rodríguez led it off and he was still looking for his 1st Major League hit. Duff got him down 0-2 quickly with that nasty curveball and he followed it up with a 3rd that Rodríguez fouled off. Duffey then missed with a high fastball and a low & away curve to even the count. Duffey decided to go with the fastball but he left it too much over the plate and it was sent into right-center field for a double. Not good but just a jam that closers get out of all the time.
J.P. Crawford grounded out to 2nd on the next pitch to move Rodríguez to 3rd for the 1st out then Tom Murphy struck out on one of those yacker curveballs for the 2nd out.
Up came Adam Frazier who was 0-4 on the day, 0-9 on the season and he had only faced Tyler Duffey one other time and that ended in a strikeout so either he was looking for one pitch in one location or the pitch was a little bit of a mistake pitch or probably a bit of both but he hit an inside fastball to left field to tie the game at 3 and he hustled to 2nd to put himself in scoring position.
Ty France came to the plate next and he already had 2 hits on the day. He fouled off an inside fastball and then one of those curveballs turned from nasty to a hanging gift of a pitch that Ty France sent to right field for an RBI-single that put the Mariners up 4-3. Ouch!
The “shouldn’t-have-traded-Taylor-Rogers” crowd just got a lot of fuel for their fire.
Jesse Winker then lined out to second to end the top of the 9th but the damage was done. Could the Twins make another comeback with Alex Kirilloff, Miguel Sanó and Max Kepler in the bottom of the 9th?
They’d have to do it against RHP Diego Castillo. Alex Kirilloff took a high and outside fastball for ball one then hit an outside sinker in the zone to center field for the 1st out. Sanó swung through the 1st pitch, a 90 mph low & away slider then took a slider right down the middle and swung & missed a lower and more outside slider for a strikeout and 2 outs. Max Kepler took 2 low, inside sliders for balls then took 2 more sliders in almost the exact same location for 2 strikes and swung over another low, inside slider to end the game.
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