This felt like a big game for the 14-20 Minnesota Twins. A victory would lock in a strong two-week stretch, while a defeat would let the Cleveland series malaise linger. Fortunately, our visiting bunch was able to channel the Force to come away with this Star Wars Day victory!
In today’s game thread intro, I extolled the virtues of a healthy Byron Buxton and noted he had never hit a ball out of Fenway Park. Well, Byron took that personally—hammering Red Sox star starter Garrett Crochet’s first pitch over the Green Monster. 1-0 Twins!
The Force was strong with this one!
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Sadly, the lead wouldn’t last past the game’s second frame.
Boston’s half of the 2nd began with Wilyer Abreu lofting a lazy fly ball to LF that Trevor Larnach and Jonah Bride’s “I got it—you take it” Laurel & Hardy routine allowed to drop on the grass. RBI knocks from Carlos Narvaez & Ceddanne Rafaela off Twins SP Chris Paddack turned comedy into tragedy: 2-1 Sox.
Cue the Cuckoo Music
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When Paddack passed Alex Bregman to lead off the 3rd, the walk would—per usual—haunt, with Bregman touching the dish on a Romy Gonzalez sac fly: 3-1 Sox.
Shaky Sheriff
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The next MIN rally occurred in the 5th when a bout of Crochet wildness put Larnach & Christian Vazquez on base. But a Buxton line out, Ryan Jeffers pop out, and Ty France ground out didn’t move them an inch, much less 90 or 180 feet.
Crochet finding ways to keep the Twins at a single vertical line on the scoreboard
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Now battling the Boston bullpen, the Twins found themselves with runners on second and third with two outs in the 7th—when Jeffers provided a name we haven’t heard in a long, long time: a clutch hit! All tied up at 3-3.
“My name’s Jeff”
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After a dominant frame from reliever Louis Varland, MN was not content with a bound baby. In the 8th, Harrison “Darth” Bader bombed a two-out double—scoring Correa—to give the Twins a 4-3 lead. Moments later, Larnach lined another two-out hit (is this legal?!) to score Bader and provide a two-run cushion. Yeeee-hooo!
Face of frustration
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The Red Sox countered with some two-out dramatics of their own in the 8th when Abreu Jax’d one out to RF off our Griffin to cut the margin to 5-4.
But in the bottom of the 9th, Jhoan Duran said “let’s blow this thing and go home!”—whiffing his surname counterpart atop the Sox order to close this one out.
A fully-operational Duran
Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images
Your Final: Minnesota Twins 5, Boston Red Sox 4.
Two weeks ago on this fine website, I mentioned wanting the Twins to put together an 8-5 run by the end of Star Wars Day. It took until the final innings of that stretch, but they managed to make it happen!
The squad will now return to 1 Twins Way this week to welcome in the Baltimore Orioles and San Francisco Giants.
Studs
Me, for setting up Buxton’s immediate blast
Buxton, for providing said blast
Jeffers, Bader, & Larnach for clutch hits
Duds
Comment of the Game