After back to back wins and back to back grand slams, the offense took the night off and the Twins lost to the Cleveland Guardians, 4-2, on Tuesday.
However, the Twins’ Royce Lewis, he of the two grand slams, hit a solo shot to make it three home runs in as many games, and Michael A.Taylor added a blast late in the game to give the Twins their second run.
But other than that the Twins struggled at the plate, going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base.
Shortstop Carlos Correa had a tough night. He went hitless in four at bats, struck out twice, grounded into a double play (his major league-leading 27th GIDP) and made an odd play in the field by dropping an infield fly on purpose to get a force out at second base. That allowed a fast runner to reach first base, who then stole second and eventually came home to score. Ouch.
The Twins go for the series win on Wednesday. Sonny Gray gets the ball.
Extra innings …
-Although the Twins lost, they still lead the Guards by six games in the AL Central.
-The comeback player of the year for the Twins? It has to be Max Kepler. He was hitting .209 on July 16, but over the past month he has hit better than .330 to now slash .255/.323/.493 with a team-leading 21 home runs. He had two hits in Tuesday’s loss.
-You know who also hit three home runs over three games, including back to back grand slams? Ex-Twin and current radio guy Dan Gladden, who did it for the Detroit Tigers in August 1993.
On Aug. 10-11, Gladden helped power Motown to 15-1 and 15-5 blowout wins over the Baltimore Orioles. In Game 3, the O’s scored 11 runs on 16 hits. Did they win? Nope. The Tigers countered with 17 runs on 20 hits, including a two-run shot from Gladden.
Gladden and his radio partner Cory Provus recently recalled Dan’s accomplishment. Gladden said that when he failed to hit a third straight grand slam he was booed. Now that’s a tough crowd.
The Detroit Free Press lede after the Game 1 win:
“The Tigers brought back their early season thunder Tuesday night at Tiger Stadium. In scoring their first 13 runs, their shortest run-producing hit was a triple.”
Sources: MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com