The Twins are in the thick of a difficult series of baseball games, but after playing relatively well against the Houston Astros and New York Yankees, I viewed the series against Detroit as an oasis — a chance for the team to secure a couple of wins before they head off to play the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But that was not to be after the Tigers took two of three games from the Twins, including Detroit’s 9-6 win on Sunday. The Tigers banged out 16 hits, with most of that damage coming against the Twins bullpen. The Tigers and Twins were deadlocked at 2-2 until Detroit unloaded, scoring seven runs in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings.
Bartolo Colon gets the ball on Monday. He is 2-6 against the Dodgers with a 5.27 ERA over his career.
Extra innings…
-Once again Adalberto Mejia didn’t pitch that poorly in Sunday’s game, but once again he also didn’t figure in the decision. Mejia is still struggling with his command which prevents him from pitching deep into games. On Sunday, he threw 96 pitches over four-plus innings.
-Twins killer Victor Martinez of the Tigers showed just that after he homered twice in the Tigers’ 6-3 win on Friday. Martinez has now hit 11 home runs off Twins pitching at Target Field.
-The Twins committed three errors on Sunday, reminding all of us about 2016. This season, however, the Twins have the second best defense in the American League.
-Reliever Craig Breslow is no longer with the Twins after he was designated for assignment, according to MLB Trade Rumors. There’s more:
After getting off to a good start in his first 21 outings, Breslow struggled in June and then spent much of July on the DL with a rib injury. Overall, Breslow has a 5.34 ERA, 5.3 K/9, 1.64 K/BB rate over 30 1/3 IP for the Twins.
-Pitcher Kyle Gibson may have saved his job after he had his best start of the season, going seven-plus innings in a 6-5 win over the Tigers on Saturday. Gibson improved to 6-8, but his ERA, despite the win, remains awfully high at 6.08.
-Good news for the Twins versus the Dodgers. They will not have to face ace Clayton Kershaw after he apparently hurt his back on Sunday.