As I said in my previous post, I urged the Twins to make hay against the Baltimore Orioles because they are about to face three good National League teams in the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres.
Why is this so important?
The Twins are 13-23 against the National League this season, according to Baseball-Reference.com, so winning now is paramount.
Step one was accomplished Monday night as Austin Martin paced a 14-hit attack and the recently acquired Dean Kremer allowed just a run across seven innings against his old club in a 9-5 win.
Martin needed a breakout game and he got it, delivering four hits, including a dinger, in five trips to the plate with three runs scored, one RBI and one stolen base.
And Josh Bell, Mr. 3-iron, smashed a three-run homer in the seventh inning, contributing to a five-run frame to break the game wide open. The top of the order was sensational as Martin, Ryan Jeffers, Royce Lewis and Bell accounted for 10 of the team’s 14 hits.
Game 2 is Tuesday. Bailey Ober gets the ball.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 59-61, now 3.5 games back in the division and 1.5 games out of the wild card race.
–Kremer’s line: One run allowed on one hit with one walk and seven strikeouts across seven innings on 89 pitches. In two starts for the Twins, Kremer has slashed his ERA to 5.25 from 6.50. Keep going, Dean.
–The not-so-great moment of the game was the Twins bullpen, which has been much better of late, but it’s now clear that Travis Adams and longtime lefty Taylor Rogers — and this is hard for me to write — are two of the weakest members of the relief corps.
Both allowed four runs on six hits to turn a blowout into a near save situation. If Rogers is not careful, he’s going to be designated for assignment.
–Tough night for the rookie: Kaelen Culpepper drove in a run on a sacrifice fly, but he also struck out four times.
–Ex-Twins come to Toronto’s rescue: Simeon Woods Richardson picked up the win in relief and closer Louis Varland locked down save No. 25 in a 2-1 win over those red-hot Boston Red Sox.
Comments