The Twins won again on Tuesday, getting a 3-1 victory at home over the never-easy-to-beat Cleveland Guardians.
That’s three wins in a row for Minnesota. They also are 7-3 in their last three games, two games under .500, three games back in the AL Central division and 1.5 games back in the Wild Card hunt. The question is: Can they do it? Can they keep winning to take either the division or qualify for the postseason as one of the wild card teams? I say they can.
And if Taj Bradley, the huge surprise of the 2026 season, continues to pitch like he did on Tuesday the Twins will remain in the thick of things. Bradley dominated the Guards, allowing just a run on three hits across seven innings with 10 strikeouts on 101 pitches. He improves to 8-3 with a 3.67 ERA.
Bradley exited after the seventh inning and relievers Andrew Morris, Taylor Rogers and closer Yoendrys Gomez backed him with three scoreless innings. Gomez locked down his 10th save of the season.
The Twins go for another series win on Wednesday. Connor Prielipp gets the ball.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 45-47.
–The Twins did just enough on offense. They got an RBI sacrifice fly from Austin Martin, an RBI single from Brooks Lee and an RBI triple from Kody Clemens.
–Bad news for Byron Buxton. The All-Star center fielder will not make another appearance at the midsummer classic because he has landed on the 10-day injured list with a right hip strain, MLB.com reports. It’s the right move. Never mind the All-Star game if it means a healthy Buxton can help the Twins down the stretch.
Alan Roden, who came to the Twins in exchange for Ty France and Louis Varland last season, has been called up from Triple-A St. Paul to replace Buck on the roster. Pitcher Kendry Rojas also was part of that deal.
Across 38 games in the minors, mostly at the Triple-A level, Roden has slashed .285/.424/.540 with nine home runs and 27 RBI, according to Baseball-Reference.com. Those are pretty good numbers.
–The curious case of Kyler Fedko. Rookie Fedko, a recent minor league callup, is still looking for his first hit, despite getting 16 at bats with the Twins. And yet he has a run, an RBI and two walks, but he also has struck out eight times and been caught stealing once.
–Former Twins reliever Griffin Jax, who the Twins received in exchange for Bradley (advantage Twins) has recently been converted to a starter for the Tampa Bay Rays, and he has pitched pretty well in that new role.
He took the loss in a 5-1 defeat to the New York Yankees on Monday, despite allowing just a hit with two walks and 10 strikeouts. The one hit, however, was a three-run homer.
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