Cubs 11, Twins 10: Comeback falls short

The Twins fell way behind early, but battled and nearly upset the Cubs today. Ultimately, their bad pitching doomed them as they fell 11-10.

Jon Lester hit a 3-run home run today. I think that pretty much sums up Lance Lynn’s performance this afternoon.

The Twins were leading 1-0 thanks to a Jake Cave blast to center field (his third homer on the year), and the Cubs answered with 8 runs in the 2nd. Lynn’s day was done 2 outs into the 2nd inning. His final line was: 1.2 IP, 7 R, 7 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 1 SO. I’ll let you look at the play-by-play, but just know that after Lester’s 3 run homer, everything fell apart, pitching and defense alike.

So, it was a bullpen day. Matt Magill finished off the 2nd inning, allowing that 8th run. He allowed another run in the 4th to make it 9-1.

The Twins scratched together a couple runs, thanks to Mitch Garver and Jake Cave, in the 5th to make it 9-3. However, the Cubs immediately answered back with a solo HR by Ian Happ off of Taylor Rogers to push the score to 10-3.

Cubs starter Jon Lester wasn’t particularly sharp, but did go 5 innings and the Twins left 9 men on against him. His final line was: 5 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 SO. Also, he hit that homer so, all in all, a good day for him.

Brian Dozier hit a 2-run HR in the 6th to make it a 10-5 game. Guess what? The Cubs scored another run in the bottom of the 6th. The whole series was like this.

As for the bullpen day, Matt Magill and Taylor Rogers both pitched 2 innings and they both gave up 2 runs. This seemed harmless at the time (we just wanted innings) but those runs really hurt us. Ryan Pressly pitched a scoreless 7th.

In the 8th, the Twins staged their comeback with 2 outs already recorded. Eduardo Escobar doubled, Dozier walked and Logan Morrison hit an RBI single to score Escobar. After a mound visit, Willians Astudillo tripled to right, scoring Morrison and Dozier. After yet another mound visit, Mitch Garver blasted a 2-run homer to left to bring the score to 11-10. Unfortunately, Jake Cave flew out to the warning track to end the inning. Still, it was a 5-run 8th for the Twins, all runs coming after the 2nd out.

Would it surprise you that Javier Baez led off the bottom of the 8th with a double? It shouldn’t. A wild pitch by Pressly then sent him to third. Pressly then got Kyle Schwarber to ground out to 1st, Wilson Contreras to strike out, and struck out the pitcher Brandon Morrow to end the threat. Thank you, NL rules.

In the 9th, the Twins tried for the largest comeback in their history. Max Kepler lined out to center for the first out. Robbie Grossman popped out, but Eddie Rosario extended the game with a single. A wild pitch sent Eddie to 2nd, but Eduardo Escobar grounded out to first to end the game.

That completes the sweep for the Cubs. As for the Twins, it doesn’t get easier as they’ll head to Milwaukee to take on the Brewers.

We can’t seem to get into a place where both our offense and our pitching are good at the same time. This series we scored 25 runs, but still got swept. Hopefully, the pitching comes around soon.

Studs:

Brian Dozier: 2-3, 3 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB

Mitch Garver: 3-5, R, 3 RBI

Jake Cave: 3-5, 2B, R, 2 RBI

Duds:

Lance Lynn, Magill, Rogers

Eddie Rosario: 1-5, BB

Robot Roll Call: