Dodgers 7, Twins 2: Bullpen squanders Archer’s debut

Chris Archer made his debut for the Twins tonight and was very fun to watch. He started the game with two 1-2-3 innings, then stranded Gavin Lux at 2nd in the 3rd. Archer exited after the 4th inning with 3 strikeouts and 0 runs allowed.

Josh Winder, making a debut of his own, relieved Archer in the 5th. He struck out Will Smith looking for his first career strikeout, but then walked Cody Bellinger and Chris Taylor. A double steal happened, and then Gavin Lux hit a sacrifice fly to score the first run of the game. Winder got Mookie Betts to fly out to limit the damage to 1, thankfully.

The Twins got that run back in the bottom of the 5th, thanks to an error from Trea Turner allowing Max Kepler to score.

In the middle innings, the rain started coming down very hard and many wondered if there would be a delay, but there wasn’t.

The 6th and 7th innings were very rainy but otherwise uneventful, let’s move on to the 8th where the game falls apart entirely for the Twins.

The Dodgers started with a pair of walks, followed by what should have been a double play but the ball skipped past Luis Arraez’s glove at 3B, allowing the Dodgers to take a 2-1 lead. Another walk, a single, a double, an Arraez error, and a single pushed that lead to 7-1. Jhon Romero and Caleb Thielbar lost the ability to throw strikes and things went downhill quickly. At least it wasn’t raining very hard at this point.

Then it started raining again, and it was so bad they had to pause the game and pull the tarps out with 0 outs in the bottom of the 8th. The game resumed at 11:30 PM after about an hour delay, and after the Wolves beat the Clippers.

The Twins got a bit of a rally started, but only got 1 run on a Max Kepler single to make it a 7-2 game. The Dodgers loaded the bases with 3 walks in the 9th but got nothing from it, somehow. Twins bats went quietly in the bottom half, giving us a final of 7-2, Dodgers.

Studs:

• Chris Archer: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 3 K
• Carlos Correa: 2-3
• Max Kepler: 2-3, 2B
• Patrick Beverley, D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards

Duds:

• Everyone involved with the 8th inning
• The weather

Thanks for joining the game thread, everyone!

Comment of the game: CG19

“I didn’t like the Archer signing when it initially happened. But I’m loving watching him right now. It’s so fun to see him spaz out when he misses a spot and get hyped when he gets something good to happen. Entertaining guy.“