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If you’ll recall, Max Kepler faced Trevor Bauer earlier this season, and homered off of him in three straight at-bats. One would think — based on the premise that the best hitters are successful roughly 30% of the time — that Bauer would get his revenge this evening.
Instead, Max Kepler defied statistics, led off the ballgame with a homer, and homered again in the next inning.
It’s major-league history for your prototypical German-born ballerina-offspring leadoff hitter. No other batter in the MLB annals has ever hit a home run in five consecutive at-bats off a single pitcher in a single season. And yet, tonight, Kepler did just that.
When dinger number five in a row went over the wall, it was hard even for Bauer to conceal his disbelief, as he unabashedly gaped open-mouthed into the outfield. Perhaps one day, Bauer/Kepler stories will be told in the same way we share anecdotes of Tony Gwynn/Greg Maddux matchups.
Kepler finally struck out in his third at-bat, eliciting wry grins from both opponents.
By that time, the Twins were up 3-1; Jake Cave and Jose Ramirez each had solo jacks mirroring each of Kepler’s one-man roundtrippers. The game settled down scoring-wise until pretty late. Jake Odorizzi cruised until a lengthy six inning spelled an early departure. Bauer fought his way through a typical Bauer start, striking out eleven and chucking almost 120 pitches.
Once the bullpens entered, the bats fired back up on both sides. Bobby Bradley hit a solo home run in the seventh off Tyler Duffey to make it a one-run game, but Jake Cave and Marwin Gonzalez combined for three RBI in the last two frames to keep the lead safe.
Taylor Rogers continued his dominance with a scoreless ninth, this coming right after two shutdown innings on Friday.
The Twins have locked up the weekend series and effectively put a screeching halt to Cleveland’s hot streak. Their lead in the AL Central is back up to 7.5 games. Tomorrow, we go for the sweep!
STUDS:
RP Taylor Rogers (1 IP, K)
RF/CF Max Kepler (2-for-5, 2 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI)
SS Jorge Polanco (3-for-5, R)
LF/RF Jake Cave (2-for-3, R, 3 RBI)
DUDS:
NO DUDS! TWINS WIN! TWINS WIN!
ROBOT ROLL CALL:
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1 | Joefishy | 74 |
2 | Mrmumph | 32 |
3 | DBTwinsfan | 30 |
4 | CG19 | 28 |
5 | doomsdayshark | 27 |
6 | Joel Hernandez | 8 |
7 | Asthix | 8 |
8 | TeamCrazyMatt | 7 |
9 | Brandon Brooks | 6 |
10 | TJ Gorsegner | 6 |
11 | TwinBob | 6 |
12 | gonzobob | 4 |
13 | Titus Decker | 4 |
14 | Uncle Lincoln | 3 |
15 | a null entry | 2 |
16 | GopherinSoCal | 2 |
17 | cpappa | 1 |
18 | Imakesandwichesforaliving | 1 |