The Minnesota Twins got some reinforcements today in RHP Michael Pineda, who was activated off the restricted list after serving the rest of his 60-game suspension from last season and missing the first 36 games, to start tonight’s game. They also activated CF Byron Buxton off the 10-Day Injured List (IL) and are rumored to be activating 3B Josh Donaldson tomorrow.
To make room for those moves, the Designated RHP Juan Minaya for Assignment (DFA’d) of Release and Optioned OF LaMonte Wade, Jr to their Alternate Training Site in St. Paul.
So…how will RHP Michael Pineda pitch after missing almost a full year of competition? His last game was on September 6th and No…I don’t count playing intrasquad games in St. Paul as competition. It’s not the same thing.
The Chicago White Sox sent LHP Dallas Keuchel to the mound with his 5-2 record, his 2.70 ERA & his 1.04 WHIP. The Twins are going with a heavily right-handed lineup with Sano leading off for the 2nd time in his career.
Let’s find out! Here’s how they lined up:
Twins Lineup:
1B Miguel Sano
SS Jorge Polanco
DH Nelson Cruz
RF Marwin Gonzalez
LF Eddie Rosario
3B Ehire Adrianza
CF Byron Buxton
2B Ildemaro Vargas
C Ryan Jeffers
White Sox lineup:
SS Tim Anderson
C Yasmani Grandal
1B Jose Abreu
DH Edwin Encarnacion
LF Eloy Jimenez
CF Luis Robert
RF Nomar Mazara
3B Yolmer Sanchez
2B Nick Madrigal
In the top of the 1st, the 1st batter, White Sox SS Tim Anderson, reached on what some say is a bad play by Miguel Sano. He was shifted a little further off of 1st base and a groundball was hit to his right and he went for it but missed it and Pineda didn’t have time to get to 1st but was Pineda going to 1st right away? He was but he hesitated a little bit and couldn’t get to first. I honestly don’t know if Sano can get to 1st in time to make that play. I do think instincts took over and it’s a hit against the shift.
Grandal flew out to left field. Abreu singled to left field. Anderson advanced to 2nd. Encarnacion lined out to center field. Eloy Jimenez doubled to the left center field wall to score Anderson from 2nd & Abreu from 1st and the White Sox took a 2-0 lead early. Luis Robert then lined out to left to end the top of the 1st. 2-0 White Sox
The Twins got a 2-out walk from DH Nelson Cruz but that’s it in the first. Pineda set the White Sox down 1-2-3 in the 2nd, groundout, swinging K & another groundout. Eddie Rosario led off the bottom of the 2nd with a single through the shift but Adrianza struck out, Buxton flew out & Vargas grounded out. Still 2-0 White Sox
Pineda allowed a leadoff single to Tim Anderson but got Yasmani Grandal to ground into a shifted 4-5-3 double play to clear the bases and Abreu popped out to end the top of the 3rd. Polanco & Cruz both hit 2-out singles but Marwin grounded into a force out to end the 3rd.
Pineda struck out Encarnacion swinging to begin the 4th and got Jimenez to fly out to center and Robert to ground out to 3rd for his 2nd 1-2-3 inning of the game. Buxton hit a 2-out single on a line drive to center & Vargas walked but Jeffers struck out swinging to end the 4th. 2-0 White Sox
Pineda got the first 2 batters out to begin the 5th, one via strikeout & one groundout but he loaded the bases on 2 singles and a walk before a Mound Visit and he then got Abreu to ground out to 1st to end the threat. Sano lead off the bottom of the 5th with a strikeout but both Jorge Polanco & Nelson Cruz singled. Polanco advanced to 3rd on Cruz’ single. Marwin Gonzalez then grounded into a force out but White Sox 1B dropped the ball which allowed Polanco to score from 3rd. Cruz out at 2nd. Rosie singled but Adrianze lined out to center to end the 5th. 2-1 White Sox
Pineda then finished his outing by setting the White Sox down 1-2-3 for the 3rd time, getting Encarnacion to fly out to center but this wasn’t just any flyout. Byron Buxton had to make a Game-Changing catch to bring this ball back into the park.
BuxTon of Defense! Defense Tool!
Jimenez then struck out swinging and Robert grounded out back to Pineda to end the 6th. 2-1 White Sox
RHP Jimmy Cordero came into to pitch the 6th for the White Sox. Keuchel’s line was 5IP 7H 1R 0ER 2BB 4K. Buxton popped out to 1st for the 1st out. Jake Cave pinch-hit for Ildemaro Vargas and then tripled on a 97mph fastball down the middle for the payoff pitch and there was some excitement in the building even if the crowd wasn’t going wild because they weren’t there. Luis Arraez then pinch-hit for Ryan Jeffers and he hit the first pitch he saw, an 88mph changeup down the middle, to right center field for an RBI-double (4) and THIS….GAME….WAS….TIED!!! Arraez was then trying to get a rise out of his teammates on the bench with some emotion at 2nd base. Sano hit a groundball to short and Arraez must have thought he could beat the throw but…he didn’t so 2 outs and a runner on 1st instead of 2 outs and a runner on 2nd but Polanco lined out to center to end the 6th. 2-2 Tie Game
Twins LHP Caleb Thielbar has been a great story so far this season as he seems to have new life at 33-years-old now that he’s back in baseball and back with his hometown Twins (he’s from Northfield, MN.) Before tonight, he had pitched 9.2 innings, allowing just 2 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks while striking out 13 for a 1.86 ERA & a 1.138 WHIP. Caleb allowed Mazara to single on a ground ball to right field then struck out Sanchez and got Madrigal to line out to left field before throwing a Wild Pitch that allowed Mazara to advance to 2nd but Caleb (or Kaleb as I like to call him) struck out Tim Anderson to end the inning.
In the bottom of the 7th, Nelson Cruz led off with his 5th double of the season & his 3rd hit of the game. Chicago then made a Pitching Change to RHP Evan Marshall and he walked Marwin Gonzalez to put 2 on with no outs but Rosario flew out to left field and Adrianza lines out to center field to bring up Byron Buxton. Marshall threw him an inside fastball that Buxton hit foul down the left field line but Marshall followed that up with the exact same pitch and Bux straightened this one out for an RBI-single to left field to score Cruz from 2nd base and put the Twins in the lead.
That’s the last hit the Twins would get on the night. Would that matter?
RHP Sergio Romo took over for Thielbar to pitch the 8th and he got the 1st batter on a groundout and the 2nd batter on a flyout but he may have injured his leg during the at-bat against the 3rd batter. Remember, he had that little trick injury from last year where he would kind of limp but still get the job done? Well, that’s what he did. He jumped up a couple of times cringing from the pain but he still got Encarnacion to pop out to end the top of the 8th.
White Sox reliever RHP Steve Cishek struck out the side in the 8th against the Twins and since the bullpen was pretty used up in last night’s game, Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli made the call to RHP Matt Wisler to close out this game. Wisler has “opened” and done very well in any spot he’s been used in, allowing just 2 runs on 8 hits and 10 walks while striking out 19 in 15.2 innings before tonight. Also, in his 9 appearances so far this season, only 1, his 1st appearance, has been just 1 inning. The rest have seen him go out for more than 3 outs. Tonight, there were only 3 outs left to get.
The other thing you should know about Matt Wisler is that he throws sliders, a lot of sliders. That’s really why the Twins claimed him. They liked his slider. He likes his slider and now, Twins fans like his slider. He threw 16 pitches tonight and he got Jimenez to ground out to 3rd for the 1st out but Ehire Adrianza had to make a very nice diving play to his right then get up and make a great throw to first for Sano to still have to pick it for the 1st out. He then got Luis Robert to strike out swinging on 3 pitches for the 2nd out. Nomar Mazara came up as the White Sox last hope to extend the game and he worked the count 3-1 before Wisler threw a slider taken for strike 2 so it was payoff pitch time and…..STRIKE THREE SWINGING ON A SLIDER!!!
Every Pitch he threw was a slider! Maybe his name should be Matt Disler because his last name is just one letter away from spelling slider or…we can just call his pitches Wislers? Yeah! That’s better than S-L-I-W-E-R! I’m not even sure how you’d say that…Sliwer? Sly-wer! Sloo-wer? Nope! That’s dumb! I’m not doing it! Haha!
I did say this, though…You Can’t Spell Wisler without a W or an S! W for Win! S for Save!
Really nice win for the Twins tonight to snap the streak.
Losing streak SNAPPED!!! #tWINs
#MNTwins 3, #ChangeTheGame 2 | F
W-Thielbar(1-0) L-Cordero (0-2,BS(1))
H-Romo(9)
HR: None
3B:
MN:Cave(1)
2B:
MN: Arraez(4) CHW: Jimenez(6)
Buxton GW RBI-1B in 7th, Game-Saving Catch(?) in 6th
Pineda:6IP 6H 2R/ER 1BB 4K
#MNBP:3IP 1H 0R/ER 0BB 4K
Thielbar:1IP 1H 0R/ER 0BB 2K #KKaleb
Romo:1IP 0H 0R/ER 0BB 0K 1 Hold(9)
Wisler:1IP 0H 0R/ER 0BB 2K 1 Save!!!
Buxton:2-4-GW RBI-1B
Cave:PH 3B (1), R
Arraez:PH RBI-2B (4)
JoPo: 2-5, R
Cruz: 3-3, 2B(5), R
Rosie: 2 H
Adrianza: You can’t spell his name with a D for Defense!
Same teams, Same time tomorrow:
RHP Jose Berrios (vs RHP Reynaldo Lopez (9.00 ERA, 2.00 WHIP)
GAME TIME: 7:10pm on Fox Sports North
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