The three-game series with the Colorado Rockies put the Twins’ spit and baling wire bullpen under the microscope, and the results are still a work in progress.
The bullpen coughed up multiple runs on Friday and Saturday, but on Sunday Andrew Morris, Anthony Banda and Yoendrys Gomez — I think the Twins have found a closer — delivered three scoreless innings to give the Twins a 3-2 win and a series win over the Colorado club.
And it’s a good thing they were in fairly decent form because the offense scored three runs on an error and two solo blasts, one from Kody Clemens, his 13th, and Ryan Kreidler, his fifth.
Although the win went to reliever Morris, who is now 4-2 with a 4.03 ERA, starter Connor Prielipp kept the Twins in the game with two runs allowed over six innings and 10 strikeouts in the quality start.
Prielipp can miss bats. He has a good fastball and a great breaking pitch that he can really snap off to batters from both sides of the plate.
The Twins now wrap up June in Houston. Zebby Matthews gets the ball Monday.
Extra innings…
–The Twins have finally won 40 games. They are 40-45.
–The Twins are now 9-13 in one-run games this season.
–Prielipp’s line: Two runs allowed on six hits with no walks and 10 strikeouts across six innings on 93 pitches. His record remains unchanged at 2-5, but he’s whittled his ERA down to the high fours. He has the third-most strikeouts on the team at 65.
–Gomez closed out the ninth inning on four pitches to pick up his eighth save of the season.
–Listening to the game, it sounds like the Rockies asked the home plate umpire to spend an extra moment with Prielipp when checking his glove and hands between innings. Were they surprised to be striking out so much? Twins manager Derek Shelton was quick to meet with his pitcher to either defend him or question what was going on.
–Twins pitching fanned 14 Rockies.