Twins 7, Reds 0: Magic number down to 3, but Royce Lewis day-to-day with hamstring tightness

Kenta Maeda started this game, tossing 5 shutout innings while allowing just 1 hit and a walk and striking out 8 Cincinnati batters.

Matt Wallner got the Twins on the board with an RBI single in the 2nd, driving in Ryan Jeffers. In 4th, Jeffers drove himself in with a solo HR to left, making it a 2-0 game. Jorge Polanco and Edouard Julien each contributed RBI singles in the 6th to double the lead.

In the top of the 6th, Royce Lewis came up limping after trying to beat out a double play grounder. He remained in the game, but in his next at bat seemed to aggravate the injury more and had to be taken out. The word after the game is that Royce Lewis is day-to-day with left hamstring tightness. Day-to-day can mean a lot of things, but this is good news.

In the 7th, Willi Castro broke it open with a 2-run blast to right, his 8th on the year. Willi then robbed Tyler Stephenson of a homer in the bottom half of that inning. Castro continues to be a great signing for the Twins this year. In the 8th, Julien scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-0.

Kody Funderbunk, Emilio Pagan, Caleb Thielbar, and Dylan Floro combined for 4 shutout innings in relief, striking out 6 on the way to victory.

After the game, the Guardians lost to the Royals, putting the Twins magic number at 3.

Studs:

Willi Castro: 2-5, HR, 2 RBI

Eduoard Julien: 2-4, BB, RBI

Max Kepler: 1-3, 2 BB, 2 R

Matt Wallner: 2-3, 2 BB, RBI, R

Kenta Maeda: 5.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 8 K

Duds:

NO DUDS TWINS WIN!