The Minnesota Twins lose 3-1 to the Houston Astros to End the Season

Posted on September 30, 2020 by Robb
Minnesota Twins rookie OF Alex Kirilloff became the 1st player to ever start a postseason game for his #MLBDebut & he singled on a 106mph line-drive in his 2nd at-bat!

18 in a row as the #MNTwins season ends in a 3-1 loss to the Houston Astros today.

That is a new record for most consecutive losses in the postseason.

A certain Twin, rookie OF Alex Kirilloff, also set a record today as the 1st rookie to ever start a postseason game for his #MLBDebut and he got the Minnesota Twins 1st hit of the game (& his #1stMLBHit) on a 106mph line-drive to right field.

We expect to see a lot of Mr. Kirilloff in the very near future!

If you want to talk about the game and the season, we can talk about it but if you’re going to bring up the streak and it being because of some curse, it’s going to be a short conversation.

It sucks to be a Twins fan right now but it’s not the end of the world for a fan. I feel for the team and all of the players, coaches, staff and employees that put a lot of hard work in a very strange difficult season to see it end like this but the Front Office has built something good here and the future is still bright.

This team will look different next year but it doesn’t have to look that different. They have decisions to make on a lot of players on if they want to bring them back or make some trades to make this team even better and hopefully for a full regular season.

RHP Jake Odorizzi, DH Nelson Cruz, UTIL Marwin Gonzalez, LHP Rich Hill, RHP Sergio Romo, RHP Tyler Clippard, RHP Trevor May? UTIL Ehire Adrianza & C Alex Avila are all free agents now. Who will be brought back?

-Cruz? I’d bring him back & he wants to come back.

-Odo? Might now be worth the price and the frustration of injuries.

-Marwin? I wouldn’t have a problem bringing him back because he plays everywhere which is a nice option to have.

-Adrianza? Is he Marwin at a much cheaper price? He can play everywhere, too. He hasn’t played much in the outfield but how much is that going to matter with this outfield?

—Relievers? Romo? Clippard? May? It’s hard to say because they do have options with prospects but all of them were pretty good to very good this season.

-Avila? They might not need a backup catcher since they’ll have Mitch Garver & now Ryan Jeffers but Alex was good for the pitching staff and takes good at-bats while being a left-handed hitter so that could be a reason to bring him back. Having depth at catcher is very important.

Is that the end for LF Eddie Rosario?
Ejected for arguing balls & strikes in the 6th in a Postseason game. I disagree with the ejection and think Umpires need to be a little less sensitive and why didn’t Astros CF George Springer get ejected as he did more than Eddie did?
Eddie has value on this team and/or for a trade for prospects or pitching, whether that’s MLB pitching or pitching prospects.

We said last season was a beginning of a new era of Twins baseball and we still believe that. Did they take another step this season? It depends on how you look at it. If you just look at the results of how the season ended, it’s probably a no but if you look at how the season went, they had better pitching and that pitching was actually good enough to win either postseeason game but the offense didn’t show up for whatever reason.

Our final ‘Take for this season…well, at least, this post is…how should we analyze what happened this season? It was a season like no other and like any other sport this year, it was & is more difficult to win than any other season because it was unlike any other season for multiple reasons.

There weren’t any fans in the stands. They couldn’t train or play the same way that they are used to. There wasn’t a minor-league season. They couldn’t do anything like they normally did at or away from the baseball park. They had to quarantine and obey protocols or games would be postponed. They weren’t allowed to use video during games to look at their at-bats or the opposing pitchers and hitters. How hard was that to do?

What about the prospects? Look at how they had to try to develop. They didn’t play any real games against real opponents. It was always games against their teammates but they did get to work closely with a mostly major league staff (?)

So…let us know your ‘Takes and please don’t second-guess the moves made today or yesterday or all season. Go ahead & ask questions about them but don’t assume if something different was done that the results would’ve been different because you don’t know and never will know. Just be open to a discussion and both sides of it.

The video, recap & stats from today’s game are HERE if you want to see them.

We’d love to hear your TwinsTakes. Hit us up on Twitter, Instagram and/or Facebook!!!

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Minnesota Twins Recap vs Reds – 9-26-2020

Posted on September 27, 2020 by Robb

Twins got a comeback victory last night to set up an interesting last day of the season.

The Minnesota Twins activated 2B Luis Arraez and recalled LHP Devin Smeltzer before last night’s game. They optioned RHP Edwar Colina and OF LaMonte Wade, Jr.

Injury Updates: 3B Josh Donaldson (calf) is feeling better and is day-to-day, while CF Byron Buxton came in today with symptoms consistent with a “mild” concussion, according to Derek Falvey…so he’s currently day-to-day, too.

Luis Arraez is in the lineup playing and batting 2nd. Jake Cave is in for Buxton at CF & Ehire Adrianza is in for Donaldson at 3B. Miguel Sano is getting the day off so Marwin Gonzalez will play 1B tonight.

Big Mike Pineda was on the mound against Reds RHP Luis Castillo:

Pineda has been very good since coming back from his suspension on September 1st. Cleveland got a lot of hits off of him a couple weeks ago but he did enough to give the Twins a chance to win in every start so far and they have won every won of his 4 previous starts while he’s only got the win in 2 of those games. They could definitely use another win to keep their chances of winning the American League Central alive so…how’d it go?

In the top of the 1st, the Reds got a single to LF from Shogo Akiyama. He then stole 2nd base (7) and Jesse Winker walked to bring up 1B Joey Votto and he doubled (8) to right field to score Akiyama and advance Winker to 3rd. Pineda then struck out Eugenio Suaraz for the 1st out but Mike Moustakas hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Winker from 3rd. Freddy Galvis walked but Brian Goodwin flew out to right to end the top of the 1st. 2-0 Reds

In the bottom of the 1st, Max Kepler grounded out to 2nd and up came Luis Arraez in his first action since September 8th. He hit his 6th double of the season on a line drive to center field. Eddie Rosario grounded out to 3rd and Arraez advanced to 3rd & Nelson Cruz knocked him in with a single to right field. Jake Cave then struck out to end the 1st inning. 2-1 Reds

Pineda had a much better 2nd inning allowing just a 2-out single to Akiyama. The Twins went down 1-2-3 on a flyout, a strikeout and a groundout.

Joey Votto led off the top of the 3rd with a line-drive off the right center field wall but Max Kepler played the bounce perfectly then made a perfect throw to 2nd to get him out just before he slid into 2nd. Defense, baby! Suarez walked but Moustakas flew out to left and Galvis struck out swinging to end the top of the 3rd.

In the bottom of the 3rd, Ehire Adrianza grounded out to 1st to lead off the inning then the Twins got back-to-back-to-back doubles from Kepler (8), Arraez (7 & 2nd of the night in 2 at-bats) & Rosario (7) to score 2 runs and take a 3-2 lead. Cruz & Cave grounded out to end the inning. 3-2 Twins

Pineda finished his outing with a 1-2-3 4th inning. He had thrown 80 pitches but he was about to face the top of the Reds lineup for the 3rd time and the Twins might have wanted to limit his outing so he’s ready for the postseason. He also needed 30+ pitches to get through the 1st inning and had just thrown 48 strikes among those 80 pitches.

The Twins got a 1-out double (4) from Marwin on a shiftbeater down the 3rd baseline and he advanced to 3rd on Ryan Jeffers groundout then scored on a wild pitch to double the Twins lead. Adrianza then struck out to end the 4th. 4-2 Twins

RHP Tyler Clippard took over for the Twins in the 5th and he set the Reds down 1-2-3 on a flyout, a popout & a groundout. The Reds replaced Luis Castillo with RHP Anthony DeSclafani and Max Kepler greeted him with his 2nd double of the night (9) to right center field. Luis Arraez then hit his 3rd double of the night (7) to the left center field wall to score Kepler from 2nd and man, isn’t it good to see Kepler and Arraez hitting and getting in a good groove at the plate? Rosario flew out to the left center field wall. Cruz grounded out to 2nd and Cave flew out to left to end the 5th. 5-2 Twins

RHP Cody Stashak took over in the 6th for the Twins and he set the Reds down 1-2-3 on two groundouts flyout. The Twins also went down 1-2-3 in the 6th so Stashak came out to pitch or, at least, begin the 7th inning and he allowed back-to-back singles but got Curt Casali to strike out looking on a pitch that was a little low and Casali didn’t agree. Rocco Baldellit then went to his bullpen to bring in LHP Taylor Rogers to face Akiyama. The Reds countered that move by pinch-hitting Nick Castellanos to get the right-handed hitter up against Rogers. He started the at-bat with 2 sliders to get ahead in the count at 0-2 with one fouled off and one swung over but the 3rd pitch was also a slider but it was left up and was in almost the same spot as the pitch that was fouled off and Castellanos lined it into left field to get the Reds within 2 runs at 5-3. The Reds pinch hit Aristides Aquino for Jesse Winker and Rogers hit him in the back foot on low slider to load the bases and bring up Joey Votto.

The at-bat started with a high fastball that just missed even though it hit the strike zone from the TV feed. A slider up & away for a strike was followed by a fastball up & in that was fouled off for strike 2. A fastball low & outside evened the count at 2-2 then a fastball was fouled off again before a slider missed to fill the count and Rogers threw another slider low & outside out of the zone for a swinging strikeout for the 2nd out. A Mound Visit preceded the at-bat against Eugenio Suarez and Rogers got him to ground out to short to end the 7th. 5-3 Twins

In the bottom of the 7th, Adrianza led it off with his 7th double, a line-drive to center field. He then advanced to 3rd on a wild pitch. Max Kepler walked and Luis Arraez added his 4th hit of the night but this one was just one of thos single-base hits but it did bring in a run & advance Kepler to 3rd so it’s okay that it wasn’t a double, Luis. It got the Twins the run back they gave up in the top of the 7th. Rosario then hit a sacrifice fly to score Kepler but the Reds got Arraez at 2nd base for a double play. Cruz then struck out to end the 7th. 7-3 Twins

Taylor Rogers came out to begin the 8th and got 2 quick groundouts before Rocco replaced him with RHP Tyler Duffey & the Stuff of Duff got a groundout to short on 2 pitches to end the top of the 8th. RHP Robert Stephenson replaced DeSclafani and he hit Jake Cave with a pitch to lead off the inning but Jake Cave was caught stealing for the 1st out. Polanco flew out & Marwin struck out swinging to end the 8th inning.

Duffey came out to pitch the 9th and his Stuff (the Right Stuff?) struck out the side, one swinging and two looking at that nasty Duffey curveball, to end the game and clinch home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs for the Minnesota Twins.
Highlights & Stats HERE!

It also sets up a very interesting last day of the regular season today as the Minnesota Twins can win the American League Central Division with a win or Chicago White Sox loss. If the Twins lose, the White Sox win, the White Sox would win the Division. If the White Sox lose & the Cleveland Indians win, Cleveland would overtake the White Sox for the 4th seed and the White Sox would then be a Wild Card team.

The Twins sit as the number 2 seed in the American League as the games begin today but the Oakland Athletics are a game back and hold the tiebreaker with a better division record so if they win and the Twins lose, the Twins would move to the 3rd seed.

Today’s game has Twins LHP Rich Hill (2-2, 3.27 ERA, 1.21 WHIP) against Reds RHP Sonny Gray (5-3, 3.73 ERA, 1.22 WHIP) at 2:10pm on Fox Sports North. Every game today is scheduled to begin at 2:10pm CST. That makes it fun because of all these playoff scenarios. There are still 2 playoff spots to be had in the National League, the 2nd Wild Card team and the who finishes 2nd in the National League Central so the St. Louis Cardinals, the Milwaukee Brewers, the San Francisco Giants & the Philadelphia Phillies are still alive with 1 game to play.

Oh…boy! It should be a fun day of baseball, TwinsTakers!

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Minnesota Twins Recap vs Tigers – 9-22-2020 – Homer Robe?

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Robb

The Minnesota Twins activated RHP Homer Bailey off of the 45-Day Injured List (IL) (Right Biceps Tendinitis) and optioned RHP Sean Poppen to their Alternate Training Site and announced Bailey would start Game 1 vs the Detroit Tigers vs LHP Tarik Skubal.

The Twins entered this game just a game back of 1st place in the American League Central Division and a game up of the New York Yankees for the 4th seed in the playoffs or the last home playoff spot.

Here is how they lined up for the first of 2 games against Detroit.

The Twins have not hit left-handed pitchers very hard this season, especially compared to last season:

According to MLB.com’s stats against left-handed pitchers, the 2020 Minnesota Twins are 21st in Average (AVG), 22nd in On-Base % (OBP) & 27th in both Slugging % (SLG) & On-Base Plus Slugging % (OPS). In 2019 against left-handed pitchers, they led the league in Average, Slugging % & OPS and were 3rd in On-Base %. What is the problem? Hey, if I knew, you’d know and the Twins would know. It’s possible the Twins do know but just haven’t been able to fix it. How much of it is due to when they played against LHPs? Was it on the road or at home? Fangraphs is one place to go to see those splits but I’m not sure it really matters that much. They have actually better on the road than at home.

2020 Minnesota Twins vs LHP in Away Games
2020 Minnesota Twins vs LHP in Home Games

Tarik Skubal did well in his 1st 2 starts against the Twins so did they have a different outcome last night?

DET LHP Tarik Skubal 2020 Game Log with MN Games Highlighted

Well, it probably can’t go much better than to have your leadoff hitter hit a HR to began the bottom of the 1st and that’s just what the extremely locked in Byron Buxton did, hitting his 13th HR of the season to put the Twins up 1-0. Josh Donaldson followed with a walk but then Skubal struck out Rosario and got Sano & Garver to fly out to end the 1st inning.

We were introduced to a new Twins look when DH Nelson Cruz was shown sporting a Twins Robe in the dugout. It’s a nice navy blue robe with his Name & Number on the back like a jersey. Apparently, Josh Donaldson bought every player one so they’d have something nice to wear for the playoffs. 

It quickly became something to put on a player who just hit a HR as you can see after Buxton’s leadoff dinger.

Twins starter Homer Bailey looked great as he went through the Detroit Tigers lineup without allowing a hit or a walk and he struck out 3. Skubal allowed only an Ehire Adrianza leadoff single in the bottom of the 3rd and struck out 4 between the 2nd & 3rd innings.

Then came the 4th inning and maybe Bailey was getting tired after not starting an actual game for so long but he hit Victor Reyes with a pitch then allowed back-to-back singles, the latter one scoring Reyes from 3rd. That prompted a Mound Visit to which Bailey responded by walking Candelario to load the bases. That brought Rocco out to bring RHP Cody Stashak in to try to limit the damage as best he could and he did the Best He Could as he got Brandon Dixon hit a groundball to the left side and, with the infield in, Ehire Adrianza snagged it & threw home from his knees for the forceout at home. Garver then threw to 3rd to get a forceout at 3rd for a 6-2-5 double play to get both lead runners for a huge play.* Stashak then got former Twin Niko Goodrum to fly out to center field to end the inning with just the 1 run allowed to tie the game at 1. 1-1 Tie
*Today, Rocco said that Josh Donaldson brought up that exact play in the huddle during the pitching change, saying to be aware of the chance to get outs at home and at 3rd.

6-2-5 Double Play is a Beauty!

In the bottom of the 4th, Sano flew out to right field to bring up Mitch Garver. It’s been a long frustrating 2020 season for Mitch but he said when he was activated on September 18th that he was going to forget about the numbers he had so far and focus on the future. Well, he hit his 2nd HR of the season to put the Twins back in front. Kepler followed with a single. Marwin struck out. Jeffers walked and Adrianza was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Byron Buxton & Detroit decided to make a pitching change to RHP Jose Cisnero and he struck out Buxton looking at 97mph heat in the low outside part of the zone to end the 4th. 2-1 Twins

Stashak got a strikeout and a flyout to begin the 5th but allowed a double to Daz Cameron. Victor Reyes then singled to left field and Eddie Rosario made a perfect throw home to gun him down and keep the Twins up by 1.

Don’t Run on The Gun. Guns & Rosie!

Donaldson was hit by a pitch to leadoff the bottom of the 5th. Sano hit a 1-out single off the 3rd baseman’s glove. Garver struck out and the Tigers made a pitching change to LHP Daniel Norris to face lefty Max Kepler and he grounded out to 3rd to end the 5th. 2-1 Twins

RHP Trevor May replaced Stashak to pitch the 6th for the Twins and he walked the leadoff hitter, Willi Castro. He then got Cabrera to fly out to center field but walked Candelario. A mound visit preceded a pinch-hit appearance from Harold Castro and May got him to pop out to 3rd but he walked Niko Goodrum to load the bases so Rocco brought in RHP Tyler Duffey to clean up the mess and he probably should’ve got out of it on a comebacker that deflected off of him. He got to the ball and made a quick throw to 1st but Sano was not able to handle the throw so Willi Castro scored to tie the game at 2. Paredes then lined out to left to end the inning. 2-2 Tie

The Twins went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 6th and Duffey came out to pitch the 7th for the Twins. He allowed a leadoff double to Daz Cameron and a 1-out RBI-single to Willi Castro that put the Tigers up 3-2. Duffey got Cabrera to ground into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play to finish his outing and he wasn’t happy. Could his team pick him up? In the bottom of the 7th, RHP Joe Jimenez replaced Norris and he got Buxton to fly out to center and Donaldson to fly out to left but Rosario singled to bring up Miguel Sano. The last time these two met (Jimenez & Sano), Sano crushed a HR and watched it before his HR trot and said later Jimenez told him “get the f*** out of here” after striking him out last year in Detroit for a save. Sano ended up hitting a towering fly ball that was caught on the warning track to end the 7th. 3-2 Tigers

RHP Tyler Clippard came in to pitch the 8th for the Twins and he set the Tigers down 1-2-3 via lineout, strikeout looking and a flyout. LHP Buck Farmer replaced Joe Jimenez to pitch the 8th for Detroit and he struck out Garver to lead off the inning but Max Kepler tied the game with his 9th HR of the season on a ball that just got over the limestone in right field. Marwin hit a comebacker that Farmer just ducked in time but the shift was waiting for it to make it a groundout to 2nd. Jeffers then grounded out to end the 8th. 3-3 Tie

RHP Sergio Romo took over for the 9th for the Twins and he struck out the leadoff hitter. He allowed a single to Paredes but got Cameron to line out and Reyes to ground out to send it to the bottom of the 9th…and the Twins had to face LHP Gregory Soto. Adrianza led off with a walk. Buxton grounded into a forceout (Adrianza out at 2nd) and Donaldson grounded into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play to send this game into Extra Innings.

In the top of the 10th, Victor Reyes started the inning at 2nd base per the new Extra Inning Rules for this season. Twins LHP Taylor Rogers took over on the mound. He got Willi Castro to ground out to 3rd to keep Reyes at 2nd but Cabrera singled to right field to advance Reyes to 3rd. He didn’t get a good read on the ball, thinking Kepler might have a chance to catch it, so he played it half way and only got to 3rd base on the play. Seems like a base-running error but Candelario made it null & void as he singled to left field to bring Reyes in to take a 4-3 lead for the Tigers. Bonifacio pinch-hit and struck out and Goodrum flew out to center to end the top of the 10th.

In the bottom of the 10th, Donaldson was supposed to start the inning at 2nd base but Rocco pinch-ran Jake Cave for him and the Twins had to face RHP Bryan Garcia to try to tie the game up. Eddie Rosario took a close pitch for a strike to start off the at-bat then he swung at a pitch about a foot outside on a just make contact swing and he blooped it to center field to tie the game. Sano struck out for the 1st out and Garver then struck out, too, but Rosario stole 2nd on the strikeout pitch and up came Max Kepler who tied the game in the bottom of the 8th. He fouled off the 1st pitch. The 2nd pitch was a changeup on the low outside part of the zone & Kepler did almost the same thing Rosario did, he blooped a single into left field to win the game.

He, of course, got to wear the #HomerRobe in the postgame interview!

The Twins will send RHP Kenta Maeda to the mound tonight and he’ll face Detroit Tigers rookie RHP Casey Mize at 6:40pm on Fox Sports North.

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Minnesota Twins Recap at Chicago Cubs – 9-20-2020

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Robb

Cleveland beat the White Sox 7-4 & Toronto beat the Yankees 11-5 so the #MNTwins are 1.5 games behind Chicago in the American League Central Division and 1.5 games ahead of New York for the 4th seed in the American League Playoffs.

Yesterday, it was Jose Berrios against Yu Darvish on National TV. Darvish was in the running for the National League Cy Young Award before last night’s game. Berrios appears to have righted the ship on his season. Since August 20th when he threw 6 innings on 1-hit, scoreless ball with 1 walk & struck out 9, he’s 3-0 with a 2.60 ERA & a 1.139 WHIP in 27.2 innings. He struck out 33 in those 5 games.

So how’d both pitchers do last night.

The Twins got a leadoff hit from Max Kepler, a single to RF. Josh Donaldson then walked to bring up Eddie Rosario and he hit a single off Cubs 1B Anthony Rizzo’s glove & into right field to score Kepler from 2nd. LaMonte Wade hit a 1-out single to load the bases but Darvish struck out both Polanco & Garver as he struck out the side to limit the damage to just the one run. Berrios allowed a 2-out single to Kris Bryant but got Kyle Schwarber to fly out to left field to end the inning. 1-0 Twins

Twins CF Jake Cave 3B’d (2) to left field to lead off the 2nd inning & Kepler hit a 1-out RBI-groundout to put another run on the board for the Twins. Berrios walked the leadoff batter in the bottom of the 2nd but got a groundout, a pop out and a lineout to end the 2nd. 2-0 Twins
Darvish set down the next 8 Twins batters in a row before giving up a Josh Donaldson 1-out single to LF in the top of the 5th. He worked around it, though. He also worked around 1-out Jorge Polanco double in the 6th. Berrios worked around a leadoff single & a 1-out single in the 3rd then worked around a leadoff Contreras double with some help from Donaldson, who threw out Contreras at home to keep the Cubs scoreless in the 4th. He then set down 6 straight to finish his outing, 6IP 4H 0R/ER 1BB 4K.

Darvish came out for the 7th but gave up a leadoff double to Marwin Gonzalez and Max Kepler took the very next pitch out to right field for his 8th HR of the season and the 100th HR of his career to put the Twins up 4-0.

RHP Trevor May pitched the 7th for the Twins and he needed just 15 pitches to strike out Heyward & Baez and get an inning-ending popout from Caratini. 4-0 Twins

LHP Taylor Rogers pitched the 8th for the Twins and he struck out PHer Jose Martinez then walked Ian Happ but struck out Anthony Rizzo and got Kris Bryan tt o line out to center to end the 8th.

Max Kepler added a double to left field to his night with 2 outs in the top of the 9th to show that he might be back to the Max we know & love. #MaximumImpact

RHP Sergio Romo pitched the 9th for the Twins. He struck out Maybin & Contreras but Contreras was able to reach first on a passed ball by Mitch Garver. Heyward was then hit by a pitch but Sergio got Baez to pop out before loading the bases by walking Caratini. He then struck out Nico Hoerner to end the game and send the Twins home for a day off before playing 2 against Detroit and 3 against Cincinnati.

There isn’t a Twins pitcher listed yet for tomorrow’s game against Detroit. We’ll be sure to update that when we see it. RHP Kenta Maeca is scheduled to pitch Game 2 on Wednesday against DET RHP Casey Mize, though.

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Minnesota Twins Recap at Chicago Cubs – 9-19-2020

Posted on September 20, 2020 by Robb

The Minnesota Twins sent RHP Michael Pineda to the mound to try to snap a 2-game losing streak and, usually with Pineda on the mound, winning has been a possibility most of the time.

The Twins had a pretty regular lineup set as for players but then changed it and sat DH Nelson Cruz due to right knee soreness and put Eddie Rosario in the DH spot, hitting 3rd.

The order has changed a little since some players have been in slumps lately while others have been doing well. Wade is in the leadoff spot with Buxton behind him and Max Kepler was moved to 5th with Polanco behind him. Donaldson was also getting a day off.

Twins Lineup:
LaMonte Wade Jr LF
Byron Buxton CF
Eddie Rosario DH
Miguel Sanó 1B
Max Kepler RF
Jorge Polanco SS
Marwin Gonzalez 2B
Ehire Adrianza 3B
Alex Avila C

Cubs Lineup:

The Cubs sent RHP Alec Mills to the mound and he threw a no-hitter in his last start so let’s see how long he went without allowing a hit last night.

Mills struck out Wade looking and Buxton swinging to begin the game but Eddie Rosario was ready to hit and a 90mph fastball in the middle of the zone was sent to the right field seats to put the Twins up 1-0 early! BOOM! Sano then struck out swinging to end the top of the 1st. 1-0 Twins

Pineda then took the mound with a lead which is always nice to do before you’ve thrown a pitch. He set the Cubs down 1-2-3 via a groundout, a flyout & a lineout.

The Twins were set down 1-2-3 in the top of the 2nd. Pineda began the bottom of the 2nd by hitting Cubs C Wilson Contreras in the left arm with a payoff pitch to get the Cubs a baserunner to lead off the inning. Pineda got Schwarber to line out to right field and Javier Baez to pop out to short but Jason Heyward 1B’d on a groundball up the middle but Jorge Polanco made a great diving stop to hold Contreras at 3rd and save a run from being scored. Unfortunately, the next batter, David Bote doubled (3) to left center field to score Contreras and advance Heyward to 3rd. Hoerner tried to bunt with 2 outs but Adrianza made a great play to get him out and keep the game tied at 1. 1-1 Tie

The Twins got a 1-out double (2) from C Alex Avila and he advanced to 3rd on LaMonte Wade’s groundout to the pitcher but Buxton grounded out to short to end the inning. Buxton made it close, though. Geez! He’s fast, huh?

Big Mike sent the Cubs down 1-2-3 again in the 3rd (swinging strikeout, popout & flyout). The Twins were then set down 1-2-3 in the top of the 4th (swinging strikeout, strikeout looking & a groundout). Pineda allowed back-to-badk 2-out singles but got a forceout to keep the game tied.

Polanco led off the top of the 5th with a single to right field but Marwin Gonzalez grounded into a 1-6-3 double play on a hard comebacker that Alec Mills caught between his legs. It’s amazing how some plays are made just on quick reactions like it’s almost automatic and muscle memory and hand-eye coordination. 

Adrianza struck out looking to end the top of the 5th. Pineda then ended his night by setting the Cubs down 1-2-3 (popout, groundout, lineout) in the bottom of the 5th. Still tied at 1 apiece.

Pineda: 5IP 4 H 1 R/ER 0 BB 1 K on 92 Pitches (59 Strikes)

Alex Avila walked to lead off the top of the 6th then advanced to 2nd on Wade’s groundout to the pitcher. Minnesota Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli pinch-ran for Avila with Jake Cave thinking this was going to be another low-scoring game and runs would be hard to come by. Buxton grounded out to 3rd for the 2nd out but Eddie Rosario came through with an RBI single to right field to score Cave and put the Twins up 2-1. Eddie was then picked off at 1st to end the top of the 6th. 

Jeffers replaced Cave, batting 9th and playing catcher and RHP Tyler Duffey replaced Michael Pineda to begin the bottom of the 6th. Duffey then set the Cubs down 1-2-3 via groundout, a flyout and a swinging strikeout to end the 6th inning. 2-1 Twins

Miguel Sano had been slumping for a while but he connected on an Alec Mills fastball and he sent it out of the stadium over left field and on to Waveland Ave. His 13th HR of the season had an exit velocity of 115mph, traveling 453 feet on a launch angle of 24º! The postgame video says the exit velocity was just 99mph, though. Hmm. I’m going with the 115 because that ball was destroyed! Slump-Buster?

Max Kepler, also in a slump, doubled (6) to left center field off Schwarber’s glove then into the ivy for a ground-rule double. The Cubs then made a pitching change to LHP Josh Osich. Polanco greeted him with a singled off 3B Kris Bryant’s glove. Kepler stayed at 2nd base. Marwin Gonzalez was hit by a pitch on his left foot to load the bases. 3B Josh Donaldson pinch-hit for Ehire Adrianza and the Cubs couldn’t make a pitching change due to the new 3-batter rule this season so the LHP had to pitch to Josh Donaldson and, with the infield in because of a 2-1 game and the Cubs trying to keep it that way, he hit a hard grounder to shortstop Javier Baez and he didn’t field it cleanly but quickly picked it up and threw home but it was low and the catcher couldn’t field it cleanly so Kepler was safe at home. E6

Rocco then pinch-hit C Mitch Garver for Ryan Jeffers so the Cubs replaced LHP Josh Osich with RHP Duane Underwood, Jr. and he hit a payoff pitch right in his wheelhouse to left field for a 2-run single and that is good to see for Mitch Garver. Good for the #GarvSauce brand, too. Wade lined into a double play. Donaldson advanced to 3rd. Byron Buxton singled to right field to bring Donaldson home but was thrown out trying to stretch it to a double to end the top fo the 7th. 7-1 Twins

Mitch Garver 2-Run single makes it 6-1 Twins!
Buxton hits a pitch the other way to bring home Donaldson. 7-1 Twins.

Twins RHP Matt Wisler replaced Tyler Duffey to pitch the 7th and the 8th and he used the slider, or what I like to call The Wisler, to strike out 6 of the 7 batters he faced. He allowed a 1-out single in the 7th. He threw 32 pitches of which 29 were sliders or, yeah, Wislers! Wisle while you work, Matt! Check this out at BaseballSavant.com!

Josh Donaldson added his 6th HR of the season in the top of the 9th on a ball hit to the opposite field to put the Twins up 8-1 then RHP Tyler Clippard came in to finish the game and clinch a postseason birth for the 2nd consecutive season for the Minnesota Twins.

Josh Donaldson goes Oppo for HR #6 of the season!

Stats & Highlights HERE!

The Twins play in prime time tonight and it’s a great pitching matchup as Twins RHP Jose Berrios (4-3, 4.15 ERA, 1.37 WHIP) pitches against Cubs RHP Yu Darvish (7-2, 1.86 ERA, 0.94 WHIP) at 6:08pm on ESPN! Looks like Yu may have reached the Ace status he was expected to do when he was signed to a 6-year, $126M deal with the Cubs in 2018. He had a very good 2019 season after struggling quite a bit in 2018 with injuries & results.

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