Twins 6, White Sox 2: Record bomba pace goes on, Pineda shines

Minnesota became the fastest team in MLB history to reach 200 dingers. Yahoo Sports reports on that here, and has never heard of Max Kepler. Michael Pineda had some baserunning traffic early, but ended up with an excellent outing.

Inning notes:

1: Leury Garcia gets a walk and steal to lead off. The Sox bunt him over to third. Provus and Gladden do not like this; “you’re not going to beat the Twins 1-0.” Watch, the Twins will never score again. Turns out the Sox don’t score, so bunt haters can rejoice.

2: Ancestry.com says Dylan Cease’s last name probably derives from the Germanic “Zeiss,” meaning a kind person. He’s kind to Minnesota’s own German, Herr von Kepler, who dongs in three after Luis Arraez had scored on a sac fly. Minnesota would bat around before it was over.

Ryan Goins reaches on a slide into first (GET MONEY GET PAID). He doesn’t score. Jason Castro gets a ball whacked off his mask but is OK. Twinses 5, Soxes 0

3: Gladden says there are 84 postures in yoga, and Cease wears jersey #84. (Gladden knows yoga?) Somebody who knows yoga better contacts the booth and explains there are actually like 1300 postures.

Pineda’s yoga is out of whack, and he gives up two runs, both on a long ball from not-slugger Adam Engel. An Arraez error doesn’t result in more scoring, but makes Pineda throw about 600 pitches. 5-2 Is Score Now

4: Beer time; strictly light lager tonight. I have to help somebody with some dock thing tomorrow. Or some dork thing, it’s unclear.

5: Cease’s night probably ends, stops, finishes after this inning, but it was a nice settle-down for the young man after that rough patch. Pineda’s pitch count is getting up there, but he’ll be back for the sixth.

6: Ross Detwiler’s “At-Bat” profile page has pictures of him clean-shaven and wearing a beard. The beard look is better. Some guys look good in beards. I am not one of them.

7: BOOMSTICK! Five straight games with homers for Nelson Cruz. Pineda finishes up the second consecutive outing where Twins pitchers lasted seven innings or more, which the team hadn’t done since June. Good Guys, 6-2

8: A Lewis Thorpe appearance, Bob’s your uncle! He does fine. A fly tries to land in my beer. I kill it. That’s the fourth fly I’ve killed tonight. What’s the deal with flies today? Maybe I’m a zombie and don’t know it yet.

9: The Twins get Taylor Rogers ready in case Thorpe struggles, but fortunately don’t have to use him. Good; at Rogers’ usage rate this year, I’m afraid he might start losing limbs.

Robot Roll Call:

Cleveland is currently beating the Royals 8-2 in the ninth, so Minnesota’s lead will remain 2.0 games. 6:10 start time tomorrow!