July 15, 2019

Twins denied sweep, but still get series win over Tribe

The Twins rallied to tie Sunday’s game at 3-3, but after reliever, Trevor May, served up a solo shot in the bottom of the seventh inning, the fight and game were lost, 4-3.

The Twins still won two of three games and have a 6.5 game lead over the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central.

Twins starter Jose Berrios wasn’t real sharp. He struck out six over five innings, but also allowed three runs and three walks and threw 92 pitches.

Cleveland scored a run in the first inning, two more in the fourth, then the Twins answered with three runs in the seventh, including two favorable hit-by-pitch calls. The Twins’ Mitch Garver was hit by a pitch, which was challenged and upheld, then Jake Cave was ruled hit by a pitch, which would ultimately score Garver.

Reliever May took the loss and fell to 3-2 with a 3.12 ERA. Michael Pineda gets the ball Tuesday.

Extra innings… 

-The Twins are 58-34.

-The Twins now fly home for nine games against the New York Mets, Oakland A’s and New York Yankees. The Twins are 3-5 so far this season against all three teams. But those games were on the road and not at home where the Twins are 28-15. The Twins also beat the Mets 14-8 in April.

-The Twins faced good pitching on Sunday, which explains why they were 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. They also struck out 15 times as a team. Max Kepler, Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sano accounted for nine of those whiffs.

-Twins radio play-by-play man Cory Provus summed it up best after Saturday’s win: “Statement weekend, statement series, statement made by the boys in blue.”

-Something I missed: Reliever Adalberto Mejia was designated for assignment to make room for Jake Odorizzi.

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.