Rookie Luke Keaschall made an immediate impact with the Twins at the beginning of the season, and he did it all over again for the club Tuesday and Wednesday, driving in six runs to help the team earn its first series win since they took two of three games from the Bucs about a month ago.
Between the start of the season and now, the kid was sidelined with a fractured forearm after he was hit by a pitch.
Keaschall homered and singled in Tuesday’s 6-3 win and cracked two doubles in Wednesday’s 9-4 series-clinching win over the Detroit Tigers.
The kid wasn’t the only player to get into the act. The Twins scored nine runs on 11 hits. Alan Roden (finally), Ryan Jeffers and Brooks Lee had two hits apiece, including dingers from Roden and Lee, while Austin Martin stepped into the box and smashed a pinch hit bomb.
On the mound, rookie Pierson Ohl wasn’t real sharp, but veteran Thomas Hatch followed him with four-plus scoreless innings with a walk and three strikeouts to pick up the win.
The Twins are off Thursday and then they begin a three-game series at home versus the Royals on Friday. Joe Ryan gets the ball.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 54-60. They are 6.5 games back in the wild card race. Do they have a chance to get back into this thing? Keaschall’s return is very encouraging because the Twins picked up back-to-back wins without Byron Buxton.
–How hard is it to be a Rockies player? Wednesday night must have been terrible because the best team in the AL East, the Toronto Blue Jays, absolutely walloped the Rocks, 20-1.
Incredibly, the Rockies scored the first run in the game and then watched as the Blue Jays responded with 20 unanswered runs, including an eight-run ninth inning. Ex-Twin Ty France had a 4-for-4 day at the plate with three doubles. The Rockies are 30-84.
–How do the Cleveland Guardians keep winning? With two players ensnared by a potentially damaging betting scandal, one would think the team would completely lose its focus and begin to fade. Kudos to manager Stephen Vogt, I guess, because they have won three straight, they are 7-3 in the last 10 games and 1.5 games back in the wild card race. The Guards are 59-55.