Astros 2, Twins 0: Darth Verlander

On a night when Lance Lynn didn’t have his best stuff, he still went out and did his job. He pitched five scoreless innings, which will be enough for this Twins offense more often than not. Sadly, tonight they ran up against Justin Verlander, who is what you would call a “good” pitcher.

After Lynn pitched more than a hundred pitches in his five innings, Taylor Rogers took over for the sixth. He allowed a Carlos Correa double, and Correa advanced to third on a ground ball. With two out, and a man on third, Paul Molitor turned to Trevor Hildenberger. Hildenberger allowed J.D. Davis to single and drive in the run, and the score was 1-0 Astros. Hildenberger escaped the sixth with no further damage, despite an Eddie Rosario error allowing Davis to advance to third. Hildenberger pitched a score-less seventh as well.

The Twins had a chance to answer in the 6th, and failed. A Jason Castro double followed by a Brian Dozier single lead to runners on first-and-third, with no outs, but Verlander struck out the next two batters, and induced a pop-up to end the inning and work his way out of the jam.

Addison Reed took over in the eighth inning, and a Carlos Correa single followed by a Marwin Gonzales double put another run on the board for Houston. The Twins put two on in the bottom half, and Miguel Sano crushed a hanging breaking ball, but just foul. He did manage to put the next ball in play, and upon replay review, Joe Mauer beat the throw to second, leading to a bases-loaded threat. The Astros turned to Chris Devenski to put out the fire, and Eddie Rosario sent the first pitch back where it came, a sharp ground ball that bounced off the mound and was fielded cleanly by Correa, leading to an inning ending double play.

Eduardo Escobar doubled in the 9th, and Byron Buxton hit another hanging breaking ball hard in the air down the left-field line, but just foul, to barely miss tying the game. A ground ball into the shift ended that threat.

The Twins left 19 men on base tonight. That is not ideal. Still technically in first place though, tied with Cleveland at .500

Studs

Jason Castro 2-for-3

Joe Mauer 1-for-2, 2BB

Lance Lynn 5IP, 9K’s, 0 runs

Duds

Miguel Sano 1-4, 3K

Logan Morrison 0-4, K

Eddie Rosario 0-4, E

ROLL CALL

COTG

Oddest pitchers duel ever. By 10.000_Sacks.

It really, really was. See ya tomorrow folks.