The Minnesota Twins tried to take the series tonight in Game 2 against the Kansas City Royals and they had RHP Joe Ryan on the mound to try to get it done. The Royals sent RHP Brad Keller to the mound. 

After winning last night, the Royals are now the only American League Central Division foe the Minnesota Twins do not have a winning record against as that win made them 2-2 for the season against Kansas City.

The Twins are getting healthy…

Twinsactions…
(Twins Transactions)

RHP Bailey Ober activated off IL; Contract of RHP Trevor Megill Selected; LHP Devin Smeltzer optioned to AAA; RHP Chris Vallimont DFA’d/DFR’d

Here’s how both teams lined up:

Minnesota Twins Lineup:

Kansas City Royals Lineup:

Game Recap

If you’re a Minnesota Twins fan, you know if Joe Ryan is starting, it’s going to be a pretty good game with the likelihood of a 5+ innings of very good pitching and a very good chance of it turning into a Twins Win. Let’s see if that’s what happened tonight.

CF Byron Buxton led off the game with a 10-pitch at-bat that ended in a pop out but seeing that many pitches as the first batter of the game helps his teammates get a look at the starting pitcher and helps get that pitch count up early. 1B Luis Arraez & SS Carlos Correa both grounded out to end the top of the 1st.

Twins starting RHP Joe Ryan struck out Royals leadoff hitter RF Whit Merrifield with a nasty low & away slider after 3 straight heaters at 91, 92 & 93 mph. KC LF Andrew Benintendi followed with a linedrive single to right field for the 1st hit of the game & Joe wasn’t too happy with the ump as he thought the 3rd &/or 5th pitch should’ve been called strikes:

No matter. Joe just got SS Bobby Witt, Jr. to ground into a forceout at 2nd then got 1B Hunter Dozier to strike out swinging on another slider that was even further outside .

The Twins went down 1-2-3 in the 2nd (2B Jorge Polanco flew out to right field, RF Max Kepler grounded out to 1st & C Gary Sánchez struck out swinging.

Kansas City got a 2-out double from CF Kyle Isbel but Joe Ryan sandwiched 2 swinging strikeouts around that double to end the 2nd inning.

The Twins led off the 3rd inning with back-t0-back baserunners on a 3B Gio Urshela walk and a C Ryan Jeffers single to center field. LF Gilberto Celestino then laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners for the 1st out. Byron Buxton then hit a sacrifice fly to the right field foul territory that allowed Gio Urshela to score the 1st run of the game and Luis Arraez followed that with a 2-out RBI-single to make it 2-0 Twins!

Joe Ryan got Royals 2B Nicky Lopez out on 2 pitches to lead off the bottom of the 3rd but on the next 2 pitches, he gave up a double to Whit Merrifield followed by an RBI-single to Andrew Benintendi to cut the lead in half, 2-1 Twins.

Ryan sat down the next 8 in a row including 2 more strikeouts (both looking this time) before he took the mound in the bottom of the 6th and he now had 2 more runs of support after the Twins got 2 more 2-out RBI hits from Max Kepler (single) and Gary Sánchez (double). Ryan then gave up a leadoff double to Andrew Benintendi but got Bobby Witt, Jr. to ground out to 3rd without allowing Benintendi to advance to 3rd on the play. He then walked Hunter Dozier on 4 pitches so Twins Pitching Coach Wes Johnson came out for a mound visit. Royals C MJ Melendez popped out to 3rd for the 2nd out but Carlos Santana was then walked on 6 pitches to load the bases and that ended Joe Ryan’s night as manager Rocco Baldelli went to his bullpen to bring in LHP Caleb Thielbar and he needed just 3 pitches to get Kyle Isbel to fly out to left field to end the threat. 

Joe Ryan’s Final Pitching Line:
5.2IP 5H 1R/ER 2BB 6K
(in line for his 5th Win)

The Twins went down 1-2-3 and Thielbar gave up a leadoff home run to Royals 3B Emmanuel Rivera on a fastball left not far enough inside. That was the 2nd HR in as many days for Rivera.* Thielbar got the next 2 batters out before walking Benintendi so Rocco went to RHP Joe Smith and he got Witt to ground out to short to end the 7th. 4-2 Twins
*He only has 3 home runs on the season & 4 in his career so he must get really happy when he sees Minnesota on the schedule. 

The Twins got that run back in the top of the 8th when Luis Arraez led off with a walk then advanced to 2nd on Carlos Correa linedrive single to center field. Jorge Polanco flew out to right field for the 1st out then Max Kepler grounded into a fielder’s choice to 2nd (Correa out at 2nd) but it allowed Arraez to advance to 3rd and a Gabe Speier wild pitch allowed Arraez to score to make it 5-2 Twins.

Twins reliever RHP Joe Smith came out to pitch the 8th and allowed a 2-out double to Carlos Santana but then struck out Kyle Isbel looking to end the inning.

It was looking like the Twins would need a closer but they got a double down the left field line off the bat of Gio Urhsela to lead off the top of the 9th. Ryan Jeffers sacrificed Urshela to 3rd on the second sac bunt of the day for the Twins. Celestino & Buxton walked on 9 total pitches to load the bases for Luis Arraez who came through with another RBI-single to left field and Carlos Correa hit a 2-run double off the right center field wall to score 2 more. 

Jorge Polanco hit a sacrifice fly to add another Twins run to make it 9-2 Twins before Kepler flew out to end the inning.

Rocco brought in RHP Cody Stashak to finish the game and he needed 18 pitches but he set the Royals down 1-2-3 and finished by striking out Dairon Blanco looking at a fastball away to send the Twins into a Game 3 looking for the sweep!

The Twins have been putting together wins and winning series since their 4-8 start. They split or lost all of their first 4 series but since then, they’ve won all but two of their next 9 series. Houston swept them at home and they split a 4-game series in Baltimore. Their record since that 4-8 start…

20-8 and they lead the American League Central by 4.5 games over the Chicago White Sox!

––––– TT –––––

Final Score
Minnesota Twins 9 | 2 Kansas City Royals
W-Ryan(5-2) L-Keller(1-4)

Pitching
Starters
MN:
RHP Joe Ryan: 
5.2IP 5H 1R/ER 2BB 6K – 5th Win

KC:
RHP Brad Keller: 
7IP 5H 4R/ER 3BB 4K – 4th Loss

Bullpen
MN:
LHP Caleb Thielbar: 
1IP 1H 1R/ER 1BB 0K 1HR – 4th Hold

RHP Joe Smith: 
1.1IP 1H 1K – 8th Hold

RHP Cody Stashak: 
1IP 1K

KC:
LHP Gabe Speier: 
1IP 1H 1R/ER 1BB 1K

LHP Foster Griffin: 
1IP 3H 4R/ER 2BB

Hitting
Home Runs
MN:
None

KC:
Emmanuel Rivera (3)

Doubles
MN:
Gary Sánchez (13), Gio Urshela (3), Carlos Correa (7

KC:
Kyle Isbel (4), Whit Merrifield (6), Andrew Benintendi (4), Carlos Santana (4)

2-Out RBI
MN (Inning):
Luis Arraez (3rd), Gary Sánchez (6th), Max Kepler (6th)

––––– TT –––––

Game Notes

*
DEFENSE! DEFENSE!

This 2022 Minnesota Twins team is a very good defensive team. Gio Urshela has made what seems like countless great defensive plays at 3rd base. He’s been so good over there that it appears Luis Arraez won’t play much more 3rd base and he’s now slotting into a platoon at 1st base with Jose Miranda right now and eventually Alex Kirilloff once he returns from a rehab assignment at AAA St. Paul.

The corner outfield defense has gotten better too. Max Kepler has always been good defensively in right field and they’ve used a plethora of players in left field with Alex Kirilloff, Trevor Larnach, Nick Gordon & now Gilberto Celestino.

What brought this on? The Twins were just okay on defense in 2021 so was it the addition of Gold & Platinum Glove winner Carlos Correa at shortstop that has helped them excel so far this season? Or the combination of Correa, Byron Buxton & Jorge Polanco to make them a really strong team up the middle?

**
The Return of the Piranhas

The Twins have been scoring runs without hitting the ball over the fence including using the sacrifice bunt to help get runners to 3rd then coming up with clutch hits.

The power is there but it’s definitely a good thing to be able to score runs in many ways.

***
Is it the Competition?

The Twins have played just 8 of their 40 games against teams currently above .500 and their record in those games is 2-6. The 2 wins were against the Tampa Bay Rays and the 6 losses were against Tampa Bay (1), the Los Angeles Dodgers (2) and the Houston Astros (3).

Only 5 American League and 6 National League teams are currently over .500. That will very likely change but it will be interesting to see how they do as their schedule gets 

––––– TT –––––

Next Up

Game 3 tomorrow afternoon at 1:10 pm on Bally Sports North as the Twins go for the sweep:

RHP Bailey Ober
(1-1, 2.75 ERA, 1.22 WHIP*)

vs

RHP Brady Singer
(1-0, 2.84 ERA, 0.95 WHIP)

*ERA=Earned Run Average, WHIP=Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched

––––– TT –––––

Thank You for reading our TwinsTakes! We’d love to hear your TwinsTakes! 

So, hit us up on Twitter, Instagram and/or Facebook!!!

That’s why it’s…

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.

Final Score
Minnesota Twins 3 | 4 Seattle Mariners
L-Duffey(0-1) W-Muñoz(1-0) S-Castillo(1)
Hs-Misiewicz(1),Romo(1) BS-Muñoz(1)