The Twins offense tonight could only be described as groundball happy, get ready to read the words “double play” about a million times. In the 1st, 2 on and 1 out, Kody Clemens hits into an inning ending double play. In the 2nd inning, Luke Keaschall ends the inning with their second double play.
They finally broke through in the 4th inning, after Clemens doubled and Josh Bell hit an RBI single to put the Twins up 1-0. In the bottom of the 5th Alan Roden hits into the 3rd Twin-killer of the night.
In the top of the 6th, Josh Rojas and Lane Thomas did a double steal, with Rojas stealing home. I wasn’t there to see it but Gameday says it happened. Two batters later, the Twin killer himself, Salvador Perez, hit the go-ahead RBI single to put the Royals up 2-1.
The Twins rallied again, with Clemens HBP and Bell singling to center with Clemens going 1st-to-3rd on the play. Then Victor Caratini ended the inning by, you guessed it, hitting into the 4th double play of the night. I’m so glad I missed almost all of this game because that had to be depressing.
What wasn’t depressing was the performance of Taj Bradley and the bullpen tonight. Taj racked up 10 strikeouts in his 6 innings of work, allowing just 3 hits, 2 runs, and 3 walks. Then Kody Funderburk, Travis Adams, and Jack Anderson combined for 3 innings of shutout pitching, allowing just 1 hit and striking out 4.
Brooks Lee hit a 1-out double in the 7th inning, but Kreidler, Lewis, and Roden couldn’t drive him in. In the 8th, a Ryan Jeffers leadoff single was followed by, and stop me if you’ve heard this before, a double play by Clemens.
In the bottom of the 9th the Twins went for one final rally. Caratini led off with a single, setting up a potential double play. Then Keaschall hit a liner down the left field line but Isaac Collins made a diving catch for the out. Lee walked, then Kreidler avoided the double play by striking out. With the game on the line, Royce Lewis hit a ball high off the right-center field wall for a 2-run walk off triple to end the game.
With that, the Twins move back to a .500 record, and they hope to get above that tomorrow against their old friend Randy Dobnak.
The only bad thing about this game was that Byron Buxton exited the game with that sore hip that he’s been dealing with lately.
Studs:
Royce Lewis: 1-1, 3B, BB, 2 RBI
Josh Bell: 2-4, RBI
Victor Caratini: 2-4, R
Brooks Lee: 1-3, 2B, BB
Taj Bradley: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 10 K
Duds:
NO DUDS TWINS WIN!!
