Twins 2, Tigers 0: The Bullpen Game

Good news: Twins won!

Bad news: Twins still can’t really hit.

More good news: The bullpen game was an absolute pitching masterpiece.

José De León started the game off with two perfect innings. Emilio Pagán came in next and was perfect for the next inning and a third, though he nearly gave up a home run that Willi Castro caught right against the wall. The recently promoted Brent Headrick was next, and while he couldn’t live up to the perfection of his teammates, still pitched 2.1 innings of shutout ball.

There honestly wasn’t much to say about this game until the 5th inning when the Tigers finally got the first base runner for either team. Headrick walked Zach Short to put a guy on base for future Hall of Famer, but current not very good player, Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera lined a double into the left field corner. With base runners sparse, the Tigers sent Short home to try to bring in a run, but a beautiful relay from Willi Castro to Carlos Correa to Ryan Jeffers at home got him out.

On the offensive side, it was yet another struggle for the Twins. Tigers starter Joey Wentz came into this game with an ERA over 7, and the Twins made him look like prime Clayton Kershaw. Wentz was perfect into the 5th before Royce Lewis walked and Willi Castro singled to create the Twins’ first, and only, threat. Kirilloff followed with a slow grounder that snuck through the infield for an RBI single.

Ryan Jeffers then crushed a ball to third that Zack Short made an incredible play on. The Tigers looked like they had an inning-ending double play, but a hard slide by Kirilloff at second allowed Jeffers to reach and the second run to come in.

From there, Brock Stewart, Griffin Jax, and Jhoan Duran shut down the last three innings and secured the victory for the Twins, ending the losing streak at two and avoiding falling under .500.

STUDS

Alex Kirilloff, I guess: 1-3, RBI

Bullpen Game pitchers (De León, Pagán, Headrick, Stewart, Jax, Duran): SHUTOUT!! 3 H, 1 BB, 5 K

Rocco Baldelli: Benched Max Kepler 3 days in a row

DUDS

The lineup: .111/.222/.148 batting line and 11 K against Joey Wentz and Tyler Alexander

Comment of the game to norff for the perfect gif usage.