{"id":165437,"date":"2025-07-10T09:30:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/165437\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T09:30:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T09:30:19","slug":"twins-4-cubs-2-twins-seal-series-over-cubs-with-second-straight-win-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/165437\/","title":{"rendered":"Twins 4, Cubs 2: Twins Seal Series Over Cubs with Second Straight Win – Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBox Score<\/a>
SP: David Festa<\/a>\u00a0 5.1 IP, 3H, 2ER, 2BB, 3K (72 pitches, 49 strikes (59%))
Home Runs:\u00a0Matt Wallner<\/a> (9);\u00a0
Top 3 WPA:\u00a0Wallner .113; Festa .100; Brock Stewart<\/a> .70
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs<\/a>)
\"image.png\"\n<\/p>\n

\n\tDavid Festa took the mound Wednesday night. Festa has bounced back and forth in his appearances this season, between two runs on a good day and eight in a rough appearance. The team has been consistent in their praise of his progress, though, especially as he improves at filling up the zone and finds comfort with his third and fourth pitches, the changeup and sinker. Leadoff man Ian Happ<\/a> hit the first pitch hard, for a threatening foul ball, but that was the most danger Festa faced in the first. He struck out Happ and (one batter later) Seiya Suzuki<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tCade Horton<\/a> took the mound for the Cubs and let his third pitch go high and inside, hitting Byron Buxton<\/a> in the hand guard\u2014and, unfortunately, the hand itself caught a partial blow. During a review (the play was initially called a foul ball, but Buxton got first after the replay), he talked at length with Rocco Baldelli<\/a> and the training staff. He stayed in the game initially, though. He took a long lead during Trevor Larnach<\/a>\u2019s at-bat and stole his 17th base of the season.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tRyan Jeffers<\/a> added to the RBIs he\u2019s been racking up lately, on a two-out single to left field to score Buxton to get the Twins on the board. Carlos Correa<\/a> followed that with a scalded double to the wall in right-center, on which the Twins’ burly catcher managed to come all the way around and score\u2014albeit on a close play.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMatt Wallner, back? It\u2019s possible. Wallner is another one who has had trouble this season at the plate, but he has continued to make adjustments and moving him down in the lineup may have been a good choice. Wallner waffled a ball down the right-field line, utterly whomped but so close to the foul line (and so high) that everyone had to wait a moment to see which way the winds might send it. It stayed fair, and carried out.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBrooks Lee<\/a> was brought in at the bottom of the second to pinch-hit for Buxton, who reportedly has a contusion to his left hand. Twins Daily will keep an eye on the situation. For now, Buxton is day-to-day.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFesta really lost command early on in the fourth inning, and took a while to get it back. The Cubs couldn’t touch him with a scoreboard-flipping blow, but after Festa created traffic with some wildness, Dansby Swanson<\/a> managed an RBI infield single and Nico Hoerner<\/a> beat out an RBI fielder’s choice. That narrowed the Twins’ lead to one run, at 3-2.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFesta\u2019s fifth inning was much cleaner. He sat down each hitter, 1-2-3, quicker than he went through the first hitter in the fourth.\u00a0 His recovery and ability to give the Twins four more outs after his near-meltdown inning were hugely important.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tRoyce Lewis<\/a> got his sixth double this season in the bottom of the fourth. In a good sign of how far he\u2019s come since his return, Lewis hustled for that double, then stole home in a double-steal maneuver with Wallner with the two at each corner base. The Twins manufactured three of their four runs Wednesday with aggressive baserunning. It was uncharacteristic, but welcome.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFesta returned for the sixth, but only got in one pitch and an out on a drive to left field. He was replaced by Danny Coulombe<\/a>, to pitch to left-handed sluggers Pete Crow Armstrong and Michael Busch<\/a>. Without trouble, Coulombe finished out the inning. Brock Stewart and Louis Varland<\/a> came in the seventh and eighth innings, eliminating any threat of the Cubs crawling back, with only 18 pitches between them. Couldn’t ask for anything better. After a busy night of warmups and four innings pitched from five hurlers Tuesday night, the quick work from all three of those (plus closer Jhoan Duran<\/a>) was great to see.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t
What\u2019s Next?\u00a0
The Twins finish out the series with the Chicago Cubs on Thursday in an early game, before the Pittsburgh Pirates come to town before the All-Star break. Chris Paddack<\/a> (3-7; 4.64 ERA) will be taking the mound against Colin Rea<\/a> (6-3; 4.13 ERA) at 12:10 PM CT.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tPostgame Interviews\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBullpen Usage Spreadsheet\n<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tSAT<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tSUN<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tMON<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tTUE<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tWED<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tTOT<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tAdams<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t68<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t22<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t47<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tCoulombe<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t14<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t17<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tDur\u00e1n<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t8<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t42<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tStewart<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t12<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tSands<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t6<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t25<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tVarland<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t9<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t11<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t20<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tMisiewicz<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tTopa<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t15<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t15<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Box ScoreSP: David Festa\u00a0 5.1 IP, 3H, 2ER, 2BB, 3K (72 pitches, 49 strikes (59%))Home Runs:\u00a0Matt Wallner (9);\u00a0Top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,2223,3225,3916,1251,822,60,3190,4,408,1252,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-165437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-byron-buxton","10":"tag-carlos-correa","11":"tag-david-festa","12":"tag-matt-wallner","13":"tag-minnesota","14":"tag-minnesota-twins","15":"tag-minnesotatwins","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-royce-lewis","18":"tag-ryan-jeffers","19":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114828242202100130","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}