Twins 8, Angels 3: Comeback Complete

The first couple of innings did not look favorable to the Minnesota Twins tonight and it seemed that the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim would stymie the Twins’ chance to secure a series win. However, the bats came alive late and in full force, but was it enough? Read on...

The Angels struck early in the game tonight, with Michael Pineda’s third pitch of the game being launched beyond the wall in left field by Mike Trout. The Angels struck again in the bottom of the second as Pineda struggled a bit with two outs in the inning. A single by David Fletcher with two runners on brought in Brian Goodwin and after a mound visit, Pineda threw a wild pitch to allow Luis Rengifo to come home from third and the Angels were up 3-0. After the damage was done, Tommy La Stella flew out to end the threat and prevent further runs from scoring. After the second, Pineda settled down and sent everyone down in order minus a walk and a hit. His final line: 6 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, HR

The Twins batters looked pretty helpless against Angels starter Trevor Cahill tonight. Save for two walks and a single, he kept the Minnesota lineup in check tonight through five innings. He went out for the sixth, and the Twins got a spark going with Max Kepler hitting a 1-1 pitch to right field. Cahill got the hook immediately after and generic name extraordinaire Justin Anderson entered in relief for Anaheim. No more than two pitches later, the Twins had the game tied at three apiece:

• Pitch 1: Jorge Polanco doubled and Kepler scored.
• Pitch 2: Marwin Gonzalez stroked a dong to right field.

The Twins broke the game open before baseball’s national anthem. Former Twins farmhand Luke Bard (I always think of lard when I hear or read his name... Buke Lard?) was left to clean up his own mess after hitting Jason Castro with one out in the inning. After a pop-out by Byron Buxton, the Twins got to work with two outs. Polanco continued his night at the plate by hitting an RBI single, scoring Castro and putting up the Twins 4-3. Gonzalez also continued his good night at the plate by dropping a ball into leftish-center field that went over the wall for a ground-rule double, scoring Kepler (he hit a single to start this off); Eddie Rosario did his part as well by shooting a single between two defenders into right field, scoring both Polanco and Gonzalez. The Twins were content and left the inning with a 7-3 lead.

However, Luis Arraez was not content with Minnesota’s lead. In the top of the eighth, he launched his first big-league homer of his career to right field on a full count off of Angels reliever Noe Ramirez. Arraez’s homer took the Twins lead to 8-3.

Matt Magill, Trevor May, Taylor Rogers, and Mike Morin all came in to shut the door over the last three innings to secure the win.

The Twins look to sweep the Angels in Anaheim tomorrow for the first time since 1996 with an 8:07p start time. Martin Perez will take the hill for Minnesota while Los Angeles will counter with Matt Harvey.

Twins 8, Angels 3
W: Pineda (4-3)
L: Bard (1-2)

Notes:

• Remember how I wrote how Marwin Gonzalez was not off to a great start at a plate? He’s now on an 11-game hitting streak.
• Luiz Arraez has notched a hit in each of his games he’s played in since being called up.
• The Twins completed their eighth comeback win of the season.

STUDS:

• The Twins players.

duds:

• no duds, it’s late, and tWINs

ROBOT ROLL CALL:

Thank you to everyone for joining in on the game thread tonight! (Feel better soon, Joel!)