Twins 5, Rays 1: Rain delays only victory

Rain moved into the Twin Cities right around rush hour on Thursday. This was a general pain in the ass for local commuters and for those who wanted to see the Minnesota-Tampa Bay game at the scheduled start time of 7:10 pm.

The eventual start time of 9:10 pm only delayed an inevitable Twins victory, as they chased Rays starter Blake Snell by the 4th inning and gave a super sharp Kyle Gibson all the support he needed in a 5-1 Twins victory.

Snell had nothing all night, even if it took the Twins awhile to capitalize. They loaded the bases in the first without scoring, then scored but one run in the second on a thicc Bobby Wilson double play.

They broke through in the third, with back-to-back doubles from Robbie Grossman and Jorge Polanco providing the runs. Snell was done after three, laboring through his 75 pitches.

Former Twins farmhand Chih Weh-Hu entered in the fourth and effectively shut his former org down until the seventh. Joe Mauer blooped a single to left, which Eddie Rosario followed with an elegant dong to right-center.

Gibson allowed his only run on a sac fly in the eighth. In his longest outing since Sept. 2016, Gibby threw 113 pitches with no walks and nine strikeouts. Fantastic.

Ryan Pressly pitched the ninth for his 705th appearance, and not surprisingly, he loaded the bases and got only one out as his arm will fall off next week in a household incident authorities won’t investigate. Fernando Rodney came in and got two damn outs.

STUDS: Gibson, Rosario. Rodney

DUDS: Snell, Pressley’s overuse, Trey Gowdy

ROBOT ROLL CALL:

See you tomorrow.