It’s back to back one-run wins for the Twins, this time a 4-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on Friday after edging the Rangers 3-2 the day before.
Incredibly, the Twins had one less hit in Friday’s win than they did on Thursday, but let’s just say they got more bang for their buck because Carlos Santana drilled a three-run job, his 17th dinger of the season. However, Ryan Jeffers retains the team lead in round-trippers because he hit his 18th, a solo shot in the third inning.
The win went to starter Simeon Woods Richardson, who doesn’t exactly “wow” you with his stuff, but he also doesn’t get knocked around by other teams. The result was two runs allowed over five innings to improve to 4-3 with an ERA that remains under 4.00. Nothing shabby about that.
SWR was followed by five relievers, including closer Jhoan Duran who worked the ninth and picked up save No. 18. Duran is not as dominant as perhaps Emmanuel Clase is, but hitting the corners at 102 miles per hour is still damn impressive.
David Festa gets the ball Saturday as the Twins go for the series win.
Extra innings…
-The Twins are now a season-high 16 games over .500 at 69-53.
-Friday’s win, combined with a Cleveland Guardians loss, means the Twins have moved within three games of the Guards. Cleveland lost 5-3 to the Milwaukee Brewers.
-The Twins are 19-14 in one-run games this season.
-Happy birthday to former Twins manager Tom Kelly, who turned 74 on Aug. 15. Kelly won more than 1,100 games for the Twins, including two World Series in 1987 and 1991. Kelly was 35 when he was first named interim manager in 1986 to replace Ray Miller.
Kelly made clear he wanted to be more than just the interim hire.
“I want to be the manager of the Twins next year, I want to have the coaches back next year,” Kelly told the Minneapolis Star and Tribune.
“If the players want to go through another manager and another set of coaches, we won’t get too much of an effort. But if we play some decent baseball the last three weeks, I have a shot at being manager next year.”
Sources: MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com