May 3, 2018

The day a rookie saved the Twins

Desperately needing a win, the Twins turned to pitcher Fernando Romero on Wednesday and he didn’t disappoint after he struck out five in five-plus innings in his major league debut.

Romero set the tone, the bullpen followed suit with three-plus scoreless innings and the Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-0 to salvage the final game of the three-game series. With the win, the Twins improved to 10-16, but are still 2-8 in their last 10 games.

Romero would have pitched deeper into the game, but he also walked three batters and had thrown 97 pitches after five innings.

Up next, the Twins hit the road to play a four-game series with the Chicago White Sox. Jake Odorizzi gets the ball Thursday.

Extra innings…

-I like the lineup that manager Paul Molitor used Wednesday. Brian Dozier and Joe Mauer led things off, but Max Kepler hit third, followed by Eduardo Escobar and Eddie Rosario. Escobar and Rosario each had two hits, including a double and home run.

-Twins’ Chief Baseball Officer, Derek Falvey, and General Manager, Thad Levine, otherwise known as Falvey & Co. on this blog, continue to add pitching depth. MLB Trade Rumors reported Tuesday that left-handed reliever Paco Rodriguez has agreed to a minor league contract with the Twins. In four seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Rodriguez had an ERA of 2.53 and struck out 91 batters in 85-plus innings.

-Sachio Kinugasa, the “iron man” of Japanese baseball who broke Lou Gehrig’s record of 2,130 consecutive games played, died last week from colon cancer. He was 71. Kinugasa played his entire career with the Hiroshima Carp. In addition to playing in 2,215 consecutive games, Kinugasa also hit 504 home runs. Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles ultimately broke both records by playing in 2,632 consecutive games.

COMMENTS

Hi, I’m Rolf Boone, Twins fan.

I became a fan of the Minnesota Twins after a friendly wager in the early 1980s. I survived Ron Davis, the meltdown in Cleveland, Phil Bradley at the Kingdome and then marveled at a rising generation of stars and two World Series wins in 1987 and 1991. Brad Radke made the 1990s bearable, while Kirby Puckett’s eye injury, exit from the game and eventual death made it almost too much to bear. The new century ushered in more talent — Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau — and consecutive seasons of playoff baseball, followed by consecutive seasons of losing baseball. A winning season returned in 2015. So here we are. Go Twins.