Twins 7, Orioles 4: Rob Refsnyder is the best baseball player

Jose Berrios, backed by the Twins offense, got himself a win today, but it wasn’t exactly easy for him. In the 2nd an Andrelton Simmons error led to Cedric Mullins hitting a 2-run single later in the inning to give the Orioles a lead. Both runs were unearned.

The Twins answered those 2 runs with 4 of their own in the 2nd. Jorge Polanco blasted his 4th homer of the year to get the Twins on the board, then Rob Refsnyder hit a run-scoring double to tie the game. O’s starter Dean Kremer walked the next two batters to load the bases, and then 2 wild pitches gave the Twins a 4-2 lead.

Berrios worked around a single and a double in the 3rd inning, but back-to-back doubles by Stevie Wilkerson and Pedro Severino cut the lead to 4-3. There were a lot of doubles in this game.

Speaking of doubles, Refsnyder led off the 4th inning with his second of the game, later scoring on a Josh Donaldson sacrifice fly. 5-3, Twins.

Berrios had his first 1-2-3 inning in the 5th. He seemed to have a hard time throwing his pitches where he wanted to tonight, and threw a lot of pitches early in the game. Still, he pitched into the 6th and finished with the line: 5.2 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO.

In the 6th, the Twins extended their lead to 6-3 thanks to Alex Kirilloff’s 2 out double, scoring Donaldson.

Caleb Thielbar and Hansel Robles handled the 6th and 7th innings without much trouble, leaving the 8th for Alexander Colome. D.J. Stewart hit a solo-shot off of him to lead off the 8th inning, and two 1-out singles shortly followed. Severino struck out for the 2nd out, and Taylor Rogers was brought in to put out the fire, getting Mullins to ground out. 6-4, Twins.

Every time the Orioles scored runs in an inning, the Twins answered back. In the 8th that answer came from my player of the game tonight, Rob Refsnyder, who homered to right field to make it 7-4.

Rogers tossed a scoreless 9th (we’re just gonna ignore that Refsnyder had an error this inning, it doesn’t matter), giving the Twins the win. They’ve now won 5 of their last 6 and will play for the sweep tomorrow. Then they have a much-needed off day.

STUDS:

Rob Refsnyder: 3-4, 2 2B, HR, 3 R, 2 RBI. Also had a pretty sweet diving catch.

Alex Kirilloff: 2-4, 2 2B, RBI

Mitch Garver: 2-3, 2 2B, BB, R

DUDS:

NO DUDS TWINS WIN!

Robot Roll Call!