On a night when Kyle Gibson couldn’t make it through four innings (sloppy defense) and the Twins were leaving RISPs a-aplenty, Minnesota won the bullpen battle by not allowing a run. Jorge Polanco’s 2-out, seventh-inning double gave your Twins the lead for good, ending Cleveland’s win streak at six games. Inning notes:
1: Nelson Cruz goes “Boomstick.” Miguel Sano tries to give it back on a barehanded throw that gets by Ehire Adrianza, but Cleveland still doesn’t score. Sano often makes that throw; not this time. Twins 1-0
2: If any Twin hits a triple, some lucky fan gets free Ellsworth Cheese Curds from Qwik Trip. That’s the wrong state, Qwik Trip. Jose Ramirez makes a steal; Good Gibby gets two strikeouts and a pop-up to strand him. Give Gibson some cheese curds.
3: I was going to make a joke about Cleveland having had the All-Star Game, but apparently the team saluted Carlos Carrasco, who is being treated for leukemia. That’s actually a nice thing for them to do.
4: Carlos Santana dong. That makes him 6-32 lifetime against Gibson; four of the six hits are homers. Adrianza, who is not usually a first baseman, is playing first base and throws a ball right into baserunner Jason Kipnis, putting runners on the corners with no outs. Gibson almost strands them; Roberto Perez brings both home. Gibby gets pulled after throwing 35 pitches in the inning. (He loses his cheese curds, now.) I think Minnesota’s odds of winning are about 20,000,000-to-1 against. Cleveland 3-1
5: After a leadoff single by Luis Arraez and Sano double, the Twins have two RISP with nobody out. Mike Clevinger is better than Gibson had been, inducing a weak Adrianza grounder, three-pitch Byron Buxton whiff and eight-pitch Max Kepler K to make the Twins’ odds of winning 30,000,000-to-1.
6: I open a rally beer, a pale ale of my own devising. The beer is good. The Twins are blah.
7: Wait... THEY LIVE! With two on and two out, replay review shows Kepler just beating an excellent Francisco Lindor throw. Jorge Polanco doubles home Max for the go-ahead run! The Twins chances are only 10,000,000-to-1 against! (Because bullpen.) Twins 4-3
8: 403-foot GarvSauce insurance; appropriate for a stadium named after an insaurance company. Taylor Rogers keeps Cleveland from scoring, but requires 16 pitches to do so. That promised bullpen help? Anytime now, Falvine, any time. Twins 5-3
9: Rogers gets it done, although his arm will probably fall off tomorrow.
I may have misjudged the Twins’ odds against winning in this one. FanGraphs has it this way. Who you gonna believe, FanGraphs or me? Solid bullpen work by Trevor May, Zack Littell, Ryne Harper and of course Rogers.
Your radio comment of the nearly four-hour game, from Cory Provus: “Dan Gladden, whereabouts unknown.” Robot Roll Call:
# | Commenter | # Comments |
---|---|---|
1 | Uncle Lincoln | 37 |
2 | doomsdayshark | 32 |
3 | Joel Hernandez | 32 |
4 | CG19 | 28 |
5 | Brandon Brooks | 20 |
6 | Asthix | 19 |
7 | DBTwinsfan | 19 |
8 | Rahil Modi | 16 |
9 | SooFoo Fan | 15 |
10 | gonzobob | 11 |
11 | GopherinSoCal | 9 |
12 | TJ Gorsegner | 9 |
13 | bf4mvp | 8 |
14 | chunkwrap_trotwood | 7 |
15 | Erudites Smell Bad | 6 |
16 | mnsportswopwopwah | 6 |
17 | Joefishy | 5 |
18 | Lars in SLP | 4 |
19 | jchcios | 3 |
20 | gintzer | 2 |
21 | Petron31 | 2 |
22 | Titus Decker | 2 |
23 | Imakesandwichesforaliving | 2 |
24 | mikecardii | 1 |
25 | Hayden A | 1 |
26 | Devereaux | 1 |
27 | Lestermilk | 1 |
Jake Odorizzi faces serial dater Trevor Bauer tomorrow at 6:10 Central.