Forget Thursday’s blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Rays because the Twins won Friday and Saturday and now seek the series win on Sunday.
How about this alignment? Gonzalez just hits it over everyone’s head for an RBI double. pic.twitter.com/j7p4dB2S6y
— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) June 1, 2019
The Twins fell behind early on Saturday, then stormed back with six extra-base hits, including two home runs, to beat the Rays 6-2. Marwin Gonzalez and Byron Buxton homered for the Twins.
“Their offense is leading all of baseball in many categories and there’s a reason why … they’re balanced,” Rays manager Kevin Cash told the Associated Press. “Hitting the ball out of ballpark at the rate they are and not striking out shows they’ve got some really quality hitters.”
On the mound, Kyle Gibson improved to 6-2 with a 3.75 ERA. Gibson allowed one unearned run over five innings with a walk and three strikeouts.
Jake Odorizzi gets the ball Sunday.
Extra innings…
-The Twins are now 39-18 and have a 10.5-game lead over the Cleveland Indians.
-On Friday, the Twins beat the Rays 5-3. During the game things got interesting when Miguel Sano hit what appeared to be a home run, only to have the ball hit a speaker at Tropicana Field and fall into an outfielder’s glove for an out. In case you didn’t know, the Trop is a domed stadium, which led Twins broadcaster and Hall of Fame pitcher, Bert Blyleven, to blurt out some choice words, according to Deadspin.
Sano was clearly frustrated with what happened, but so was Twins broadcaster Bert Blyleven who said, “blow up this place!” just before the feed cut to commercial.
Bert’s right: domed stadiums are unfortunate relics of the past, but it also didn’t take long for a Deadspin commenter to remind Twins fans about the house of horrors the Metrodome used to be.
The Twins used to play in the Metrodome. They have lost all rights to complain about the quirks or crappiness of another stadium in perpetuity.
-In Friday’s game, Jose Berrios gave the Twins a quality start, but he also exited in a tie game so didn’t figure in the decision. Berrios allowed three runs over six-plus innings with eight strikeouts.