After the Twins rallied to beat the Kansas City Royals on Friday and Saturday, they appeared to have nothing left in a 6-1 loss to the Royals on Sunday. Starter Michael Pineda had one bad inning and that was the game.
But after a day off Monday, the Twins were back home to face the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 of their three-game series. As noted by MLB.com, the Twins, perhaps feeling refreshed, went to work early on Rays starter, Blake Snell, and led 8-0 after five innings and won 9-4 when it was all done.
The Twins banged out 15 hits, including two more home runs from Jonathan Schoop and Mitch Garver. Eddie Rosario had a four-hit night, followed by Garver and Willians Astudillo with three hits apiece.
Kyle Gibson, who was terrible in his previous start, bounced back nicely to go seven innings and get the win. He is now 8-4 with a 4.26 ERA. One thing I admire about Gibson is how he applauds at the mound when one of his teammates makes a nice defensive play. On Tuesday, La Tortuga, playing right field, banged into the wall to turn a foul ball into an out. It did not go unnoticed by Gibson.
Jake Odorizzi gets the ball Wednesday. The Twins also get a tough customer in Charlie Morton, who is 8-1 with a 2.31 ERA.
Extra innings…
-The Twins are 51-27. The Cleveland Indians are playing better ball so the Twins’ lead in the AL Central is down to 8.5 games.
-Rays starter, Snell, the defending American League Cy Young award winner, is having a rough 2019. After Tuesday’s loss, he’s now 4-7 with a 5.01 ERA.
-Max Kepler appears day-to-day after he was hit by a pitch on the elbow in Tuesday’s game.
-For a weekday game, the Twins were greeted by a nice crowd of nearly 32,000.
-Although the Twins lost on Sunday, Twins rookie infielder Luis Arraez went 4-for-4 at the plate.