As former Twins broadcaster Dick Bremer once said: “I think we’ve had enough of the Cleveland Guardians.”
Boy, have they ever.
The Twins played four games with the Guards, losing three of them by one run, including two incredibly painful back-to-back walk-off losses in extra innings on Wednesday and Thursday.
The result is that the Twins and Tigers are tied for the final wild card spot in the American League. They also are two games back of the Kansas City Royals, who aren’t exactly running away from anyone at the moment. If all three should be tied at the end of the season, the Twins hold the tiebreaker over both teams. That’s right: fuck you.
David Festa gets the ball Friday night at Fenway Park.
Extra innings…
-The Royals are 82-71, the Twins are 80-73 and the Tigers are 80-73.
-The final nine games of the season for the three teams:
Royals: Giants, Nationals, Braves.
Twins: Red Sox, Marlins, Orioles.
Tigers: Orioles, Rays, White Sox. Some teams have all the luck.
-The Twins lost 3-2 in 10 innings on Thursday. Once again the pitching was pretty good and the offense went completely missing. The Twins scored two runs on three hits and struck out 14 times as a team. That’s not going to win you many games.
-Simeon Woods Richardson, a bit like Zebby Matthews, didn’t last very long, but he still allowed just a run over four-plus innings with six strikeouts. Newcomer Cole Irvin allowed a run, and then the two teams, deadlocked at 2-2, marched their way in unison to the 10th inning where Twins reliever Caleb Thielbar served up an RBI single. Ballgame.
-In other news, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani is doing things to a baseball that I don’t think any of us thought possible. On Thursday, he went 6-for-6 with three home runs, two doubles, four runs scored and 10 RBI! He also stole two bases to enter the 50-50 club. He now has 51 dingers and 51 stolen bases on the season with nine games left. Wow.
I thought it was ridiculous when Ohtani signed with the Dodgers for $700 million. Now, it just might be a bargain.
-No more losing now, Minnesota.
“It’s pretty straight — we’ve got to go win baseball games,” Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers told MLB.com. “It’s as simple as that. We say the same thing about these games, and we didn’t do it. We’ve got to turn the page to Boston and just try to win those games. That’s all we can do at this point, is go out there and try and win those games.”