The Houston Astros swept a three-game series from the Minnesota Twins on Thursday, and if somebody told me that not a single Astros player broke out in a sweat during that series, or that manager Dusty Baker napped for 72 carefree hours, I’d believe them because they appeared to win with ease, like it was automatic. Just add water and these Astros will win.
In the end, they outscored the Twins 21-3, including an 11-3 blowout that was played over the course of two days after play was suspended Wednesday night due to stormy weather. No matter: The Astros led 5-1 when play was suspended, then they scored six more runs with ease for the blowout victory.
Take note, Twins. The Astros were 7-for-13 with runners in scoring position in that win, while the Twins were 3-for-13 and left 12 men on base.
Sonny Gray gets the ball Friday against the Cleveland Guardians.
Extra innings…
-The Twins have a three-game losing streak and are now 18-14.
-The Twins have scored a total of 10 runs over the last six games.
-Starting pitching struggled in the series, with no starter going more than four innings.
-In addition to the 11-3 loss, the Twins were shut out twice, both by a score of 5-0.
-The Twins need to get healthy to get this season back on track. Luis Arraez, who returned to the lineup Thursday, didn’t miss a beat with a 2-for-4 day and a walk.
-Starters Joe Ryan and Josh Winder simply had off days in their losses to the Astros, but Chris Archer? He hasn’t looked great all season, and while Ryan made good pitches that should’ve been called strikes, Archer’s pitches weren’t close, resulting in three walks in three innings.
-On May 14, 2010, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire intentionally walked Mark Teixeira at Yankee Stadium so that right-handed reliever Matt Guerrier would face Alex Rodriguez. In came Guerrier and out went the baseball as A-Rod hit the 19th grand slam of his career to win 8-4.
The Star Tribune’s headline the next day: “Another Bronx-iety attack.”
“Matty is our best right-handed setup man,” Gardenhire told the paper after the game “And that’s who we had in that situation, and sometimes you can’t do anything about the numbers.”