The Twins swept the woeful Chicago White Sox over the weekend and then took Game 1 from the lovable losers at Wrigley Field on Monday to extend the team’s winning streak to five games.
The Cleveland Guardians and Kansas City Royals both lost, so the Twins are now 3.5 games back of the Guards and 1.5 games up on the Royals in the American League Central. After the series with the Cubs, it gets very, very real, folks. That’s because the Guards come to Target Field this weekend for four games, a series that could catapult the Twins into first place in the division.
Twins pitching did a number on the Cubs, the team striking out 14 times in the 3-0 Minnesota win.
Rookie pitcher David Festa, the “Slim Reaper,” lived up to his nickname by striking out nine over five innings, lefty Caleb Thielbar followed him and struck out the side on 15 pitches and Griffin Jax closed out the game for his eighth save. The Twins allowed a grand total of four hits.
At the plate, Manny Margot homered, Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner had two hits apiece and Royce Lewis drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Pablo Lopez gets the ball Tuesday.
Extra innings…
-The Twins are 63-48.
-White Sox watch: The South Siders lost their 21st straight game to the Oakland A’s on Monday, 5-1. That ties them with the 1988 Baltimore Orioles, who started the season with 21 losses.
-A little history: On Aug. 5, 1959, the Washington Senators snapped their 18-game losing streak with a 9-0 win over the Cleveland Indians in the second game of a doubleheader.
A number of future Twins played a role in the win: Zoilo Versalles had a hit, Bob Allison had two hits and Harmon Killebrew smashed his 34th home run. The win went to pitcher Truman “Tex” Clevenger, who scattered seven hits across nine innings with eight strikeouts.
Future Twin Billy Martin, who hit leadoff for the Tribe, suffered a broken jaw and cheekbone after Clevenger hit him in the face with a pitch.
The (Washington, D.C.) Evening Star
“The Senators can breathe again. They’ve crawled from beneath the heavy burden of carrying a long losing streak to extremes, and now they hope to prove they’re not as inept as they’ve appeared in recent weeks.
“When they pulled out of it last night at Griffith Stadium after accumulating 18 straight defeats, matching the longest losing string in Washington history, the Senators accomplished it as a team. Everybody except Truman Clevenger participated in a 14-hit, second-game batting attack which crushed Cleveland, 9-0. The Indians won the first game, 7-3.”
MLB.com. Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com