Twins 4, White Sox 1: Miguel Sano go boom

Sure, the Twins got another great start from Ervin Santana, who pitched six scoreless innings today, and the bullpen was able to pull off some magic tricks—but everyone’s really talking about Miguel Sano’s big-ol’ satisfying, glorious, two-run home run.

This dinger wasn’t like the over-sized line-drive Sano hit opening day. This one was just a huge, towering ball, the kind people lose track of in the air, but end up falling somewhere beyond the outfield fence anyway.

I’d love to show you a video or even just a gif—but alas, MLB is stupid and doesn’t let us use those so soon after the broadcast. What I can show you is this sweet GIF of Sano and Jorge Polanco—who also hit a dinger in the game—celebrating in the dugout.

Sano’s sloppy tater came in the top of the eighth when the Twins were already up 2-0, but the insurance runs were certainly welcome. That’s because, of course, the Twins bullpen made it interesting.

The good news, though? The bullpen made it interesting in what turned out to be a good way in the end. After Taylor Rogers and Ryan Pressly put together a scoreless seventh inning, Matt Belisle came in and filled the bases thanks to some walks, a single, and a wild pitch. With the bases loaded and two outs, Brandon Kintzler came in for the three-out save—and promptly hit-by-pitched in a run.

The Twins could have just unraveled there, but they didn’t. Kintzler gathered himself to get the last out of the inning (a swinging strike), and came back to pitch a shut-out ninth inning too. It was an interesting ninth inning, but it got the job done—so let’s just leave it at that.

Studs!

• Miguel Sano: Big, long two-run dong. He also hit a double!
• Jorge Polanco: Nice dong. One-run dong.
• Joe Mauer: Drove in the first run of the game with an RBI single.
• Ervin Santana: Six-scoreless innings, baby.

duds

• Eddie Rosario: 0-for-4, 2 strikeouts, 3 left one base—made a great catch, though.
• Byron Buxton: 0-for-4, 1 strikeout, 3 left on base. Now hitting .077 on the season.
• Max Kepler: 0-for-3, 1 strikeout.

ROLL CALL!