After the worst loss of the season on Friday, an anemic, two-hit effort against the West Sacramento A’s (or whatever you want to call them) — a team that has allowed an AL-worst 582 runs — the Twins bounced back with a 2-0 shutout win of their own on Saturday.
Although the Twins now have a chance at a series win on Sunday, there’s not a lot to like here.
They only had two hits on Friday, and were little better on offense on Saturday with a grand total of six hits. The big blow belonged to Alan Roden, who drove in two runs with an RBI single.
The offense has gone missing in action, but the Twins bullpen, which is slowly entering the realm of respectability, limited the A’s to three hits.
Kendry Rojas, who got the spot start after Mike Paredes was a late scratch due to an oblique injury, allowed just a hit across four innings, followed by four more pitchers who were just as stingy. Yoendrys Gomez picked up his 13th save.
This should’ve been a sweep, but now it needs to be a series win. Connor Prielipp gets the ball for the rubber match.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 52-54. They are 3.5 games back in the division and two games back in the wild card hunt.
–The Twins lost 2-0 on Friday, the A’s scoring their two runs on a sacrifice fly and single. Incredibly, the Twins could not capitalize on seven walks. Instead, they had two hits, grounded into two double plays and were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
–Don’t blame, Zebby: Zebby Matthews did not record a decision in Friday’s loss, although he still made a quality start by allowing just two runs across six innings. This, after he got bombed in the Windy City with 10 runs allowed, eight earned.
–The Twins still lead the American League in runs scored with 500, but they also have allowed the third-most runs at 530.