Red Sox 5, Twins 4: Twins lose a weird one

It didn’t come easy tonight for Sonny Gray, but he was able to work around trouble to only give up one run in 5 innings of work. That run came in the first after Alex Verdugo doubled and Rafael Devers singled to bring him around to score.

In the 2nd, Gray struck out Justin Turner with the bases loaded to get out of a jam. There were also literally ducks behind 2nd base at the time. He stranded 2 more runners in the 4th, and 1 more in the 5th before he exited the game. His final line was 5.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 7 SO.

Meanwhile, Chris Sale was breezing through the Twins lineup. Their only run against him came in the 5th inning with the bases loaded and nobody out. After Donovan Solano struck out, Carlos Correa hit a sacrifice fly RBI to tie the game. That was the only run they got out of that situation, though, as Byron Buxton grounded out to end the inning. Sale finished off his night by striking out Michael A. Taylor, his final line was: 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 11 SO.

In the 7th, Max Kepler broke out of his slump with a solo blast to right field, giving the Twins a 2-1 lead. In the bottom of the 8th, with Enrique Hernandez on 1st, Reese McGuire grounded to 3rd, but catcher’s interference was called and Donovan Solano didn’t register the out at 1st, with Hernandez moving to 3rd on the play. The Red Sox declined the penalty, something I didn’t know you could do, accepting the result of the play (1st and 3rd, 1 out). It seemed that everyone thought it was a dead ball, but it wasn’t? Very confusing.

Jarren Duran followed that nonsense up with a groundball to 2nd baseman Nick Gordon who threw home but it was too high and Hernandez scored the tying run.

Kenley Jansen and Jhoan Duran both pitched 1-2-3 9th innings, sending us to extras. A hit-by-pitch and a walk gave Buxton a chance with the bases loaded, and he hit a sac-fly RBI to right to put the Twins up 3-2, with Solano moving to 3rd. Jose Miranda hit a grounder to shortstop, which should have been an inning ending double play but Hernandez’s only play was to 1st. That put the Twins up 4-2, heading to the bottom of the 10th.

Jovani Moran entered and immediately things went off the rails. Hernandez struck out but reached first on a wild pitch. Triston Casas then walked, and McGuire hit a 2-run single to left to tie the game at 4-4. Duran singled to load the bases, but then Rob Refsnyder hit a grounder to Jose Miranda at 3rd who tagged out Casas and threw to 1st for an incredible double play! But then Alex Verdugo hit a flyball right, just barely fair off the wall in the corner, it had to be reviewed but the ruling was upheld and the Red Sox walked off the Twins, 5-4.

At least the Guardians lost twice today to the Tigers.

Studs:

Sonny Gray: 5.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 7 SO.

Carlos Correa: 1-2, RBI, 2 BB

Max Kepler: 1-3, HR

The two ducks

Duds:

Jovani Moran and Christian Vazquez in the 10th.

The offense for most of the game, they made Chris Sale look like old Chris Sale.

Thanks for joining the thread everyone! Good night.