After a terrible sweep at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies, the Twins have shaken off their National League struggles with a series win over the Atlanta Braves, including Tuesday’s 4-1 win.
The American League is so bunched up that with those two wins, the Twins now find themselves in second place in the AL Central and a half-game back in the wild card race.
The Twins’ Josh Bell, Mr. 3-iron, got things started on Tuesday with a two-run blast, his 17th, and then late in the game rookie Kaelen Culpepper stepped up with a single, Byron Buxton did the same, and then Ryan Jeffers drove in both with a double off the wall.
Zebby Matthews and four relievers limited the Braves to one run. Zebby is now 7-8 on the season with a 5.12 ERA and closer Yoendrys Gomez notched his 19th save. After the turnstile of relievers earlier in the season, the Twins have found a good one in Gomez.
The Twins go for the sweep on Wednesday. Taj Bradley gets the ball.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 62-65.
–The Twins are now 15-26 against the NL and 6-10 in August.
–Zebby’s line: One run allowed on five hits with a walk and four whiffs across five-plus innings.
–Monday’s 4-2 win over the Braves snapped the Twins’ 11-game losing streak to Atlanta.
–The losing pitcher of record on Tuesday was ex-Twin Tyler Mahle, which is fine with me. He made a grand total of nine starts over two seasons with the Twins and then departed as a free agent. I never thought he wanted to be in Minnesota. Unfortunately, the Twins sent top prospects Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Spencer Steer to the Cincinnati Reds to get him. Mahle falls to 4-10 on the season.
–Speaking of Encarnacion-Strand, who is now with the Baltimore Orioles, he had a 3-for-5 day at the plate, scored a run and drove in four more in a 7-6 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday.
–The Twins were outscored by the Phillies 23-7.