The Twins won the finale over the Cleveland Guardians and they did it again Tuesday with a 4-1 win on the road against the Texas Rangers.
Starting pitching Daniel Zebulon Matthews bounced back in a huge way after he had a terrible outing against the New York Yankees.
Zebby allowed just a run, a first-inning home run, and then settled down to scatter three remaining hits across seven innings with no walks and six strikeouts on 90 pitches. He trimmed his ERA to 5.56 from 5.97.
It’s a good thing that Zebby was up to the task because the offense was not. Twins batters managed to push four runs across on eight hits, but were otherwise 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position and stranded 12 base runners.
Taj Bradley gets the ball Wednesday.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 68-89.
–Catchers Christian Vazquez and Ryan Jeffers have rejoined the Twins after stints on the injured list, but now Pablo Lopez and Matt Wallner will end their seasons on the IL, joining Justin Topa, David Festa and Alan Roden.
Say what you will about trading 10 players at the deadline, including the team’s most valuable relievers, but this team and season also were completely undermined again by more injuries. The Twins just can’t escape the injury bug. Rookie sensation Luke Keaschall lost a chunk of his season to a broken forearm, but so, too, did Royce Lewis, Zebby, Pablo and the other aforementioned. The end of 2024 was wiped out by losing Joe Ryan and it just carried into this season. It’s very frustrating.
–Zebby pitched well and do did the bullpen. Fundy made another scoreless appearance and Cole Sands, who really needed a clean sheet, closed out the ninth on nine pitches.
–Meanwhile, let’s talk about the Cleveland Guardians. The Guards accomplished the unthinkable on Tuesday, roaring from way back in the division to tie the Detroit Tigers for the AL Central lead after a 5-2 win at Progressive Field. Guardians pitching struck out 19 Tigers, including a dozen from starter Gavin Williams. Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt was your AL Manager of the Year in 2024 and you can give him the award this year, too. Both teams are 85-72.