“Hey Minnesota Twins—you just traded away a third of your roster in a single day! What do you win? A trip to your personal house of horrors—Progressive Field—to play your recent tormentors the Cleveland Guardians.”
“Come on down!!!”
Predictably, things did not start off well for Twins SP Joe Ryan, who for the second straight start looked a little off (spotty control and many pitches). Jose Ramirez—of course—knocked in Steven Kwan in the first inning, then Brayan Rocchio did the same with old friend Carlos Santana touching the dish. 2-0 CLE.
I liked it better when he did this for MN
Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images
That’s how the scoreboard stayed for quite some time, as Ryan settled in but the Baby Twins were no better than the Pre-Apocalypse Twins at manufacturing runs.
Ended up with a quality start
Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images
But in B7, Brooks Lee lined a hit into RF and Christian Vazquez was plunked. After Mario Mickey Gasper struck out, Austin Martin tapped a ball to CLE RP Hunter Gaddis—who threw wildly to first base (you know its wild when not even Santana could corral it) & both Lee AND Vazquez chugged around to score! 2-2 tie.
Chugga chugga chugga
Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images
Ultimately, this led to the Guardians’ first chance at another walk-off victory over the Twins in B9. Facing Michael Tonkin with two outs, Rocchio launched a sphere “deep…back…and…” into Matt Wallner’s glove with his back scraping against the wall.
Given this Fred Sanford-like reprieve, the Twins—could do nothing with their freebie in T10.
You really almost don’t even need a recap of tonight’s final events—they are burned into your Guardian-induced nightmares. But such is the recapper’s job…
Kwan bunt single that Kody Funderburk couldn’t handle, advancing Rocchio to 3B
David Fry strikeout
Ramirez intentional walk
Kyle Manzardo single
The same world still spins ‘round—I guess some things never change
Your Final: Cleveland Guardians 3, Minnesota Twins 2.
We cannot beat them with the vets, we cannot beat them free of debts.
We cannot beat them with the gloves, we cannot bring the bats some love.
We cannot beat them here or there, we cannot beat them anywhere.
The Doctor (Seuss) is in
Photo by Gene Lester/Getty Images
Studs
Ryan: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 4 K, 1 BB
Martin: 3-5
Duds
The Pohlads (can this be some sort of perma-dud feature? Maybe in WordPress next week)
The entire state of Ohio. Sorry Cincinnati—you are catching strays. But I am resolute on this.
Comment of the Game