The Minnesota Twins played their first 7-inning game as part of today’s double-header after last night’s game was rained out.
Twins RHP Jake Odorizzi started the first game and looked good through 4 innings having allowed just 1 hit, no runs & no walks while striking out 6, 5 swinging & 1 looking. Unfortunately, he pitched into the 5th but gave up a double and then a 2-run HR to KC 3B Maikel Franco (5) on a hanging breaking ball to get the Royals within 1 at 3-2.
The Twins got their 3 runs off a big 2-run blast from DH Nelson Cruz (5) in the bottom of the 3rd to take a 2-0 lead and added another run on a CF Byron Buxton sacrifice fly to left field that scored 1B Miguel Sano from 3rd who reached on single then advanced to 3rd on a hit & run executed well by 2B Luis Arraez in the bottom of the 4th.
Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli brought in RHP Tyler Duffey and he set the next 3 batters down (lineout, strikeout swinging, groundout) on 10 pitches and 7 strikes.
In the bottom of the 5th, the Twins got their 2-run lead back after Nelson Cruz came within inches of his 2nd HR of the game and within inches of a great catch from Royals LF Andrew Gordon. Cruz then scored on LF Eddie Rosario’s double down the right field line. 4-2 Twins.
The Twins Bullpen did the rest as RHP Sergio Romo pitched a perfect 6th with 2 strikeouts including his 700th career strikeout. LHP Taylor Rogers allowed 2 singles but got a double play after the 1st single then struck out Andrew Gordon looking to end the game for his 5th save of the season.
Twins get Pitching & Offense in 12-2 Thumping of the Brewers.
The #MNTwins had RHP Kenta Maeda on the mound and if it weren’t for that Dobnak guy, he’d be the Minnesota Twins best starting pitcher right now.
Maeda began the game by getting through the whole Milwaukee Brewers lineup perfectly in the 1st 3 innings and by the time he took the mound in the bottom of the 4th, the Twins offense had already put up 7 runs on the board by scoring 5 in the 2nd inning & 1 each in the 3rd & the 4th inning.
The top of the 2nd began with a Marwin Gonzalez groundout to 2nd but Miguel Sano walked and Jake Cave sent a double(1) to the left field wall and the Big Man scored all the way from 1st base. Buxton grounded out to 2nd but Jake Cave advanced to 3rd on the play. 4 straight singles from 2B Luis Arraez, C Mitch Garver, SS Jorge Polanco and DH Nelson Cruz followed by a Wild Pitch scored 4 more runs for a quick 5-0 Twins lead.
Miguel Sano hit a solo HR (4) in the 3rd inning and a Marwin Gonzalez RBI double(1) to right field in the 4th inning made it 7-0 Twins.
Brewers LF Christian Yelich hit a 2-out single to right field in the 4th inning for their 1st hit of the game but Kenta Maeda then set down the next 6 Milwaukee batters until he gave up a single (3B Eric Sogard), an RBI double (2B Keston Hiura) & an RBI-single (SS Luis Urias) with 2 outs in the 6th innng to allow the only 2 runs of the game to the Brewers.
When he allowed those 2 runs, Kenta Maeda’s offense had already added 5 more runs to their 7-0 lead.
In the top of the 5th, the Twins batted around as RF Jake Cave made the 1st & 3rd outs of the inning. In between those outs, though…
Byron Buxton hit his 4th HR of the season to left field and then they went single (Arraez), single (Garver) & walk (Polanco) to load the bases for DH Nelson Cruz. He ended up walking in a run and LF Eddie Rosario also walked in a run. Marwin Gonzalez then hit a sacrifice fly before Cave ended the inning just like he began the inning. It’s alright, Jake. Remember, you started the scoring in this game with an RBI-double in the 2nd!
In the top of the 6th, Byron Buxton hit his 5th HR of the game and he did it by having a great at-bat battling for 9 pitches. He was down 0-2 and had to foul off a curveball and 2 singers while also taking 3 balls before getting that 9th pitch, which as you can see in the video below was low but he got the barrel to it and set it 424 feet out to left center field.
Byron Buxton battles through 9 pitches, hits 5th HR of the season.
The Buxton at bat with pitch locations.
Kenta Maeda pitched into the 7th inning for the 1st time this season for him or any Twins starting pitcher but he gave up a single to lead off the bottom of the 7th then got his 5th strikeout and a lineout to center but walked the catcher so Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli brought in LHP Caleb Thielbar to get the last out of the 7th.
Twins LHP Lewis Thorpe was brought in to pitch the 8th and then finished the game. He gave up a single in the 8th and a leadoff double (Justin Smoak) but also got 2 swinging strikeouts including one to end the game.
It’s good to see Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton and maybe most of all Mitch Garver have some success with the bat but also the whole Twins offense to have a big game which allowed the bullpen to rest and get Lewis Thorpe some work in after struggling in his last start.
The Twins have Thursday off before they start a 7-game homestand beginning with a 4-game series against the Royals on Friday and ending with a 3-game series against these Brewers that starts on Tuesday.
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The Minnesota Twins Acquired Infieider Ildemaro Vargas for Cash
The Minnesota Twins Front Office of CBO Derek Falvey & GM Thad Levine are getting a jump on the Trade Deadline a little bit, acquiring 29-year-old Infielder Ildemaro Vargas from the Arizona Diamondbacks for cash considerations.
Vargas was hitting .150 (3-for-20) before getting designated for assignment (DFA’d) on Thursday. We already mentioned he’s 29-years-old but it’s a pretty amazing thing since he was signed as a 16-year in June of 2008 so he’s been battling for 12 years to make it in the Majors. Has he found the right fit with the Twins? They’re going to find out.
Ildemaro has played mostly in the middle infielder through his 12 years of professional baseball but he’s also played a lot at the hot corner, 3B, and has spent some time at 1B and the outfield. He also pitched 0.2 innings back in 2014. He also looks like he handles the bat pretty well. He is a switch-hitter who is better from the right side of the plate.
He played in the St. Louis Cardinals organization from 2008 until 2015 when they released him so he went to Independent Ball in the Atlantic League to keep playing in the hopes a team would see him and like him.
Ildemaro Vargas’ Career with the St. Louis Cardinals
In steps the Arizona Diamondbacks who signed him and put him in Low-A-ball again at the age of 23 but up to that point, he had only played 120 games above Low-A ball (112 in High-A & 8 in AA) in 2014 and that’s when the Cardinals had decided to go in another direction and release him. This was his 2nd chance.
He spent the rest of the 2015 season with the Kane County Cougars and, in 86 games, he hit .321.385.438 (Average/On-Base%/Slugging%) 108-for-388 with 18 doubles, 3 triples, 5 home runs and 39 RBIs (Runs Batted In) with 6 stolen bases in 9 attempts while walking 35 times & striking out only 16 times. He also scored 62 runs.
Was he a new player or just a player with new life and confidence because a team showed confidence in him?
In 2016, he had a career year. He started in AA. Well, it actually started with an invite to Diamondbacks Spring Training and then he went to AA-ball and played well enough to get called up to AAA in the middle of July and played the rest of the season for the Reno Aces.
Ildemaro had a career year in 2016
Then, after the season, Ildemaro had his contract selected so he could be added to the Diamondbacks 40-man roster! Man, what a year for the then 24-year-old and how much things changed from 19 months before, from released to being added to a Major League Baseball team’s 40-man.
I like looking at stats because you can see improvement from level to level and year to year. In 2017, you can see Vargas starts to gain some power because his extra-base hits went from 36 in 2016 in 133 games to 49 in 115 games in the minors. He also received The Call and made his MLB debut on June 29th, 2017. Unfortunately, he was optioned 4 days later then he had an injury that kept him out for a couple of weeks but he came back and went on a tear for 24 games to earn another callup and finished the season with the big club.
Since then he’s progressed somewhat slowly making that trek from AAA to the big club more and more, getting a late callup in 2018 to making the club to begin 2019 but being optioned down and called back up twice but playing in 92 big league games.
He was probably an easy bet to make Arizona’s 60-Man Player Pool and the 30-man roster but he was out of options so when they tried to assign him to the minors via DFA, the Twins may have had their eyes on him to have another option for their 28-man roster.
The Twins will make a roster move later to make room for Vargas.
Quotes from Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli from this Pioneer Press article from Betsy Helfand: While the move seems relatively minor, it does bring about a bigger question: Is this move in any way a reaction to third baseman Josh Donaldson’s calf injury?
“So, no,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “This is a player that I believe, as a whole, we really liked. A guy that we probably would be looking into acquiring regardless of what was going on at this moment. … It’s more about the ability of the player than the circumstances of our season.”
Baldelli said reports coming in from Arizona told them that Vargas would fit in well with the clubhouse. He described him as a versatile infielder with a good contact bat.
“You add that all up, he looks like an interesting guy and a guy that can complement our group in a lot of different ways,” Baldelli said.
Also, Minnesota Twins turtle, UTIL Willians Astudillo, has been reinstated from the Injured List and sent to the Twins Alternate Training Site in St. Paul but it sounds like he could be ready soon if he’s needed.
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Minnesota Twins RHP Randy Dobnak has been the Minnesota Twins best pitcher so far in these 15 games of 2020 baseball. Before tonight’s game, he was 2-0 after starting 3 games & allowing just 1 run on 9 hits and 4 walks while striking out 8 in 15 innings for an ERA (Earned Run Average) of 0.60 and WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched) of 0.867.
He started tonight’s game with 4 straight balls (3B Eric Sogard), 5 if you count the 2nd batter, who ended up singling (SS Keston Hiura) but he got LF Christian Yelich to ground into a force out for the 1st out. That advanced the runners to 2nd & 3rd but he got 1B Justin Smoak to strike out swinging for the 2nd out the got CF Avisail Garcia to fly out to center field to end the threat.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Dobnak allowed a 1-out single to Luis Urias and a 2-out RBI-Double to Orlando “Don’t Call Me Oswaldo” Arcia to allow the Milwaukee Brewers to take a 1-0 lead but he got Eric Sogard to fly out to center to limit the damage.
The Twins got a great night at the plate from backup (?) C Alex Avila from behind and at the plate. He led off the top of the 3rd inning with a great at-bat to work the count full before lining a single up the middle. RF Max Kepler followed with a single off the end of his bat down the 3rd baseline to beat the shift (read LineDrive single) to get 2 runners on with no outs.
Jorge Polanco then grounded into a force out but he runs hard to stay out of the double play and saves an out.* DH Nelson Cruz was then hit by a pitch to load the bases for one Eddie Rosario and Eddie didn’t wait long to make an impact. He swung at the 1st pitch and turned a 0 into a 4 with his 4th HR of the season and his 4th career Grand Slam (this is the video below, too)! We call that…A WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE!!! *How many times so far this season has he done that? He makes contact and gets hits. He makes contact and extends innings with his hustle! JO PO!!!!
The rest of the game was pretty much all pitching as Randy Dobnak ended up pitching 5 innings of 1-run ball allowing just 4 hits and 1 walk while striking out 3. The Minnesota Twins bullpen pitched the final 4 innings with each of RHP Trevor May, Tyler Duffey, Sergio Romo and LHP Taylor Rogers going 1 inning & allowing 1 hit. Romo gave up a solo HR to leadoff the 8th inning but then got a strikeout and 2 pop outs to end the inning. Taylor Rogers came in for his 4th save and gave up a 2-out double to bring the tying run to the plate but ended up striking out Mark Mathias to end the game. They struck out 5 altogether.
After the game, Randy Dobnak was asked where his confidence level is right now:
“The defense has been unbelievable. For me, I’m not going to strike out the world so I’m trying to get the ball on the ground and having those guys behind me in the field is awesome. I can trust them with anything, really.”
Other Notes:
Some great plays on Defense from Ehire Adrianza at 3B.
Buxton went 0-4 with 3 swinging strikeouts.
Avila ended up going 1-2 with a 1B, 2 walks & a strikeout
Along with calling a great game from behind the plate.
One thing that’d be awesome to hear is the talk in the dugout about adjustments to a pitcher.
A teammate telling another teammate, “Hey! Watch for ? when he (the opposing pitcher) does ?”
We all know there are adjustments made throughout a season but how many little adjustments are made throughout an inning and a game?
Tomorrow night at 7:10pm:
The Twins are going with another bullpen games so: RHP Tyler Clippard will open the game (0-0, 1.17 ERA)
vs
RHP Josh Lindblom (1-0, 4.15 ERA)
Here’s a Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet from TwinsDaily.com to show you where the bullpen is at for tomorrow night’s game and who might be available:
Twins go for the series & season sweep of the Pirates today.
The Minnesota Twins go for a series & season sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates and also try to extend their winning streak to 7 games with RHP Kenta Maeda on the mound against Pirates RHP JT Brubaker. Twins 2B Luis Arraez gets the day off so Marwin Gonzalez gets the start at 2B and Ehire Adrianza will start at the hot corner.
The Twins have done a great job of jumping on teams early. So far, this season, the Twins have scored 16 runs in the 1st inning and 15 in the 2nd inning.
2020 Minnesota Twins Scoring Summary through August 5th, 2020
They added to that today as they struck again in the early going. RF Max Kepler grounded out to 2nd but SS Jorge Polanco singled to right field then, after DH Nelson Cruz popped out to 1st for the 2nd out, he stole 2nd base for his 1st stolen base of the season. LF Eddie Rosario walked and the ball 4 pitch (pitch #9) was a high and way outside fastball that allowed Polanco to advance to 3rd. That brought up 1B Miguel Sano and he took a slider for strike one but then turned on a low, inside fastball and turned a scoreless game into a 3-0 game and may have “broke left field” with a line drive HR (3) just inside the left field foul pole. It for sure sounded like he left a mark on at least one seat. BANG! 3-0 Twins
“…and that one broke left field.” – Pirates Play-By-Play announcer #TheSoundsOfTheGame
Twins starter RHP Kenta Maeda got 3 flyouts in the bottom of the 1st. The Twins then got a leadoff single from Ehire Adrianza but C Alex Avila grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to put 2 quick outs on the board and empty the bases. CF Byron Buxton came to the plate and hit the ball hard to the Pirates 3B Phillip Evans but he couldn’t handle it right away and knowing it was the speedy Buxton who hit the ball, panic set in quickly but he couldn’t grab the ball quick enough so his Speed Tool allowed Buxton to reach on an error. Unfortunately, Max Kepler grounded out to 2nd again to end the half inning.
The Pirates led off the bottom of the 2nd with 2 singles from 1B Colin Moran and LF Bryan Reynolds. RF Gregory Polanco was either looking for the curveball or just likes what he saw and launched a 3-run Game-Tying HR into the river!
Into the drink! Gregory Polanco ties the game with a HR that lands in the river!
Maeda then set down the next 14 straight Pirates, striking out 4 of them (swinging) before walking Josh Bell with 2 outs in the bottom of the 6th. The next batter grounded out at that’s as far as Kenta Maeda would go today. Kenta Maeda’s line:6IP 3H 3R/ER 1BB 4K 1 HR and he was in line to get his 3rd win of the season when he left.
Pirates starter JT Brubaker was taken out after the 3rd and replaced by RHP Cody Ponce and he gave up 2 hits, 1 walk and struck out 3 in those 3 innings. The 2 hits were big hits but before those happened, he got a friendly call on strike 3 to Alex Avila & Avila flipped his bat back to the dugout in response to the obviously low pitch:
Not a Strike! Blue that call!
So, Avila should’ve been on 1st with a walk when Byron Buxton comes to the plate next and ends up doing this on the 2nd pitch of the at-bat for his 1st HR of the season. Rosie got his in the 5th for his 3rd HR of the season. 5-3 Twins
Buxton (1 & Rosario (3) hit HRs in the 4th & 5th innings off Ponce.
The Twins had 3 hits & 1 walk in the final 4 innings, all singles from Cruz (2) & Adrianza and the walk went to Alex Avila on basically the same pitch he was called out on in the 4th. Come on, Blue!
The Twins brought in RHP Tyler Clippard for the 6th and he allowed a single but also struck out 2 in a scoreless 7th. RHP Sergio Romo pitched the 8th and walked the first batter he faced, CF Jerrod Dyson. Dyson then sandwiched stealing 2nd & 3rd around a Adam Frazier flyout then scored on an RBI groundout to 3rd to get within 1 at 5-4. Romo struck out Josh Bell to finish off the 8th with a 1-run Twins lead still intact.
Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli brought in LHP Taylor Rogers to close out the game. He gave up a leadoff single to Colin Moran on one of those just-trying-to-make-contact swings. Moran was pinch-run for by Cole Tucker. Bryan Reynolds then doubled down the 3rd-base line to advance Tucker to 3rd. Rogers struck out Gregory Polanco swinging for the 1st out and Pirates manager Derek Shelton then pinch-hit right-handed Kevin Newman for JT Riddle and this happened:
Pinch-Hit Walk-Off 2-run single from Pirates SS Kevin Newman
That’s a tough loss as the Minnesota Twins bullpen has been great so far this season but this is going to happen every now and then. This Twins team will respond the right way when they play the Kansas City Royals in KC tomorrow night at 7:05pm with:
LHP Devin Smeltzer (1-0, 11.57 ERA) on the mound and against RHP Jakob Junis (0-0, 4.15 ERA).
