Twins 9, Tigers 4: Time-delayed offense

It was largely a tale of two games this afternoon; the Tigers outscored the Twins 4-0 through four innings. Minnesota would ring up nine unanswered runs through the second half. Those of you with solid approximation skills may have already figured this out, but I’ll reiterate it anyway - the Twins won this one by a 9-4 final.

Backed by a good bullpen and timely late hitting, Minnesota recovered nicely from a shaky start by Bailey Ober. The Tigers notched back-to-back homers off Ober in the second inning, then earned back-to-back walks in the fourth and started circling them around the bases.

Ober was replaced in favor of Derek Law, who let in an inherited runner on a sacrifice fly, and continued mowing down hitters from there. Despite just one strikeout, Law laid down the himself and retired all 7 Tiger hitters he faced.

A combined effort from Danny “Colome” Coulombe, as well as Alex “Coulombe” Colome, provided Minnesota with 2.1 scoreless frames — Tyler Duffey knocked out the last shutout inning for the Twins.

While the bullpen was going to work, the Twin bats started lighting it up. Alex Kirilloff cut the lead to 4-2 with a two-run jolt in the sixth; the Twins pulled ahead when Jorge Polanco went yard for three runs in the seventh. Luis Arraez and Nelson Cruz combined for six hits, a walk, and three runs; the former had a huge, bases-loaded, two-out double in the eighth inning to help break the game open.

It was 9-4 when all was said and done; that’s now 18 combined runs for Minnesota in the series.

They’ll have a chance to add to that tally tomorrow - the last game ahead of the All-Star Break. The Twins will not have won 40 games by that mile marker...but they could win 39!

STUDS:

3B Luis Arraez (3-for-5, 2 R, 2 RBI)

2B Jorge Polanco (1-for-4, 3 RBI, RH, R)

DH Nelson Cruz (3-for-3, BB, R)

RF Alex Kirilloff (1-for-4, R, 2 RBI, HR)

Bullpen (5.2 IP, 3 H, 5 K, 0 R)

DUDS:

NO DUDS! TWINS WIN!

ROBOT ROLL CALL: