Rangers 18, Twins 4: Bad baseball

The Twins experimented with the “opener” strategy today. If you don’t know what that means, it’s basically when a team uses what is typically a relief pitcher at the start of the game. Usually that pitcher will pitch the first 1-3 innings, and then another reliever will be brought in. Today the “opener” was Gabriel Moya, and it did not go very well.

In the first inning, Moya surrendered a walk to Rougned Odor, followed by a 2-run homer by Elvis Andrus. Moya’s day was done after just one inning.

Zach Littell pitched the next 4 innings, allowing just 1 run on an error by Logan Forsythe. So, good on him, but the Twins were still down 3-0 after 5 innings.

The Rangers scored 9 times in the 6th inning. Some highlights:

• Robinson Chirinos hit a 2-run homer, that’s pretty normal.
• Chris Gimenez had a ball hit right to him that he did not catch, allowing 2 runs to score.
• Nomar Mazara hit a 2-run homer.
• Matt Belisle hit Adrian Beltre, and then HP umpire Alan Porter ejected him. It was pretty clearly not intentional, especially because he had just entered the game. This was confusing for everyone involved.
• Alan Busenitz was brought in, and he gave up a 2-run homer to Jurickson Profar.

In the 7th, the Rangers added a run on a sac-fly to make it 13-0.

The Twins finally got a run in the 8th inning, thanks to Jake Cave’s 10th home run of the season. That’s his 3rd home run in as many games. Later, Ehire Adrianza would single to bring in another run to make it 13-2.

This game pretty much required a pitching appearance from Chris Gimenez, and that is what we got in the 8th. He allowed 5 more runs, if that matters.

Baseball is funny, as Gimenez hit a 2-run homer in the 9th inning. It was basically the Chris Gimenez show the last two innings, so that was fun at least.

Studs:

Chris Gimenez

Jake Cave

Umm

Duds:

Pitching people.

Alan Porter, who also ejected Addison Reed for some reason. I guess he just wanted to eject some people today.

Robot Roll Call:

COTG:

myjah: Chris Gimenez is totally going to pitch in this game

Have a great week, everyone!