Which would you rather focus on? Kody Clemens’ three home run night, Kid Keaschall’s game-winning sacrifice fly or another off night for the Twins’ bullpen?
Despite the fireworks, it’s hard to look past the state of this team’s relief corps. And all of its problems land squarely on ownership and management. Is this what they had in mind when they traded 10 players at the deadline and thought they would just get by? It hasn’t worked at all and I fear, given what appears to be a new (existing?) unwillingness to spend money, that this is the plan for next season, too. Again, prepare yourself for 100 losses, Twins Territory.
The Twins fell behind early, then rallied to take a 6-2 lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday. But then reliever Michael Tonkin served up two runs and Cole Sands allowed four more to hand the Snakes an 8-6 lead going into the bottom of the ninth inning.
But Clemens triggered the second rally with his third home run of the night, followed by a single, hit by pitch, walk and a walk of Trevor Larnach which forced in a run to tie the game at 8-8. And then Keaschall ended it with his sac fly for the 9-8 win.
Joe Ryan gets the ball Saturday.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 65-82.
–Clemens’ power show gives him 19 dingers on the season. He had four hits in four trips to the plate with three runs scored and five RBI.
–It wasn’t the best effort from starter Pablo Lopez, although he did not allow an earned run because of two errors behind him. His line: two runs allowed on four hits with three walks and six strikeouts across five innings on 99 pitches.
–Reliever Cole Sands blew the save in the ninth, his fourth, but ultimately was credited with the win.
–The last Twin to have a three-homer night was none other than Miguel Sano, who hit three against the White Sox on May 18, 2021, according to MLB.com. That game also happened to be a walk-off victory for the Twins, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
–The Twins dropped their recent series to the Los Angeles Angels, including a 4-3 loss to the Halos on Wednesday. However, Taj Bradley made a quality start, allowing three runs on four hits across six-plus innings with two walks and five strikeouts.