What? Me worry?
— Alfred E. Neuman
After much hand-wringing about the state of the Twins bullpen in my previous post, the Twins returned to the diamond Sunday and reminded Twins fans, including this one, that sometimes they’re not going to need a bullpen at all. In fact, the Twins have already done that several times this season. They beat the Seattle Mariners 18-4, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 16-7, and the Detroit Tigers, 12-2 on Sunday.
Every Twins player had at least one hit. Nelson Cruz and Eddie Rosario had three hits apiece, plus four other players had two hits. They also had eight extra-base hits, including four home runs, from Cruz, Rosario, Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano. In all, the Twins scored 12 runs on 17 hits.
Handed an early lead, starter Jake Odorizzi cruised through six innings, allowing one earned run with eight strikeouts, He’s now 9-2 with a 1.92 ERA. With those numbers, he has to be an early contender for the AL Cy Young award.
“These guys can really swing it,” (Tigers manager Ron) Gardenhire said of his former club to the Detroit Free Press. “We compete pretty good with these guys, but they put he ball in the seats an awful lot, they’re very talented, a lot of athletes, their pitching staff is pretty good and they can mix a lot of things at you.”
Martin Perez gets the ball Tuesday against Seattle.
Extra innings…
-The Twins are 43-21 and have a 10.5 game lead over the Cleveland Indians.
-The Twins turned three double plays on Sunday.
-Rosario leads the team with 19 home runs.
-Shocking news out of the Dominican Republic where future Hall of Famer, David Ortiz, was reportedly shot. Various media reports say Ortiz is in stable condition, following surgery, although they also say he was shot in the back and that the bullet passed through his body. Ortiz spent six seasons with the Twins before joining the Boston Red Sox. He hit 483 home runs over 14 seasons in Boston.