The Twins rocked Motown on Friday 9-3 and then took one on the nose Saturday, losing 7-2. The bullpen again struggled.
Joe Ryan made a quality start, despite the loss, and exited the game with the Twins down only by a run, 3-2. But relievers Brock Stewart and Seven Okert allowed four more runs and that was the game.
It wasn’t all their fault. The Twins, of course, had to battle their way against Tigers hurler Tarik Skubal, one of the best pitchers in the game and it showed as the Twins had a grand total of six hits. Royce Lewis, recently returned from the injured list (and let’s hope it stays that way) had two of them, smacking a first-inning dinger and a double and he drove in two runs.
Ryan pitched nearly as well as Skubal. He allowed three runs over six innings with a walk and eight strikeouts, matching Skubal’s strikeout total.
Bailey Ober gets the ball Sunday in the rubber match.
Extra innings…
-What does it all mean? Well, the Twins are still 4.5 games back of the Cleveland Guardians because they got blanked by the Phillies 8-0 on Saturday. Both teams are 4-6 over their last 10 games. In fact, the Guards have cooled considerably since their 38-19 start through the end of May. Since then, they went 14-11 in June and have a losing record in July.
-The Twins put on a show in Friday’s win over the Motor City. They cracked four home runs, getting long distance shots from Byron Buxton, Oregon State man Trevor Larnach, Matt Wallner and Christian Vazquez, who had three hits. Joining him in the three-hit file was rookie sensation Brooks Lee. Starter Pablo Lopez improved to 9-7 with a 4.73 ERA in the win. He allowed two runs over seven innings.
-After the Detroit series, the Twins head to New York to play the Mets, come home to play the White Sox (Yes!), visit the north side to play the Cubs and then circle your calendars Twins fans because the Guardians come to town for a key, four-game series. Get ready.
-A little history: On July 27, 1978, the Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-3.
The Toronto Star:
“Manager Gene Mauch of the Minnesota Twins believes in the theory that good hitting is contagious.
“There never was any question in my mind about that,” Mauch said after his Twins pounded out 11 hits for a 6-3 win over the Blue Jays yesterday afternoon before 18,285 at Metropolitan Stadium.
“It means you’ve got three or four guys who can expose the pitcher’s vulnerability to the balance of the lineup and this helps them,” Mauch explained.
“Last year we had four good hitters in there every day (Rod Carew, Larry Hisle, Lyman Bostock and Dan Ford). This year we are kind of down to two, Ford and Carew, but there is no reason some of the others — Mike Cubbage, Butch Wynegar and Roy Smalley — can’t achieve that point.”
Well, Cubbage certainly didn’t get top billing from his manager, but he should’ve because he hit for the cycle in the win and drove in four runs.
Sources: MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com