Twins 4, Orioles 3: An Easter Weekend Sweep!

Twins win! The Easter Weekend was full of joy for the Twins and their fans as they finish off a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles.

This game had about the strangest start you could think of. Jorge Polanco popped up a pitch to left in the first inning, but the left fielder Dwight Smith Jr. dropped it so Polanco had a little league triple. Of course the Minnesota Hero La Tortuga would follow up with an RBI double. A couple batters later and C.J. Cron drove in Willians Astudillo to take a 2-0 first inning lead.

The Twins took the second off from scoring, but then in the third Jake Cave (aka Caveman) drove in Nelson Cruz on an RBI single. Gibson would give up a couple but of course La Tortuga would go get a sacrifice fly the next inning to make it 4-2 Twins.

Kyle Gibson finished after 6.0 innings, giving up two runs on only 5 hits. He struck out six and walked none on 89 pitches.

The bullpen would start with Trevor May—who had an easy 1-2-3 inning highlighted by a wonderful highlight turtle looking catch.

The 8th inning wasn’t nearly as easy. It started with May giving up two singles, but luckily the fire extinguisher Trevor Hildenberger was able to come into the game and escape the jam with a strikeout and a couple ground outs. I mean who didn’t expect that? We have a good bullpen everyone.

I was writing this as the game went along, and the 9th inning very nearly made me eat my words about the good bullpen. Luckily, the Twins best reliever Taylor Rogers only gave up a hit by pitch, line out, single/error, strikeout, double, walk, and then a heart attack fly out with Cave fighting the sun. Just your typical save.

Interesting stats: Trevor Hildenberger has stranded an MLB leading 14 inherited runners. He also has inherited 14 runners in 11 games after only inheriting 25 runners in all of 2018. The Twins have now won 9 straight games against the Orioles.

Studs:

C Willians Astudillo (1-for-4, 2 RBIs, diving catch)

1B C.J. Cron (2-for-3, RBI, BB)

SP Kyle Gibson (6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 6 K, 0 BB)

RP Hildenberger (1.0 IP, K, 2 inherited runners stranded)

The Sun (Gave Jorge Polanco a leadoff triple/error)

Duds:

Cruz/Rosario (0-for-8, 4 K, 6 LOB)

The Orioles for like the next four years.

Roll Call: