The Twins survived a dominant performance from Cleveland Guardians pitcher Gavin Williams, then scored three runs off one of the league’s best bullpens to edge the Guards in a classic Minnesota/Cleveland nail-biter 3-1 in 12 innings on Thursday.
The win earned the Twins a split of the four-game series with Cleveland. It wasn’t a sweep or a series win, but the Twins bounced back from two bad defeats to get a lopsided win of their own and a resilient win in extra innings.
Most important? The split has likely shifted the conversation back to the Twins being buyers instead of sellers as the trade deadline approaches.
And if they want to make an even stronger argument for adding pieces for a second-half run, their next six games, at home no less, are against two of the weakest teams in the American League: the West Sacramento A’s (or whatever you want to call them) and Kansas City Royals.
Pitching was preeminent on Thursday as Williams blanked the Twins for seven innings while Minnesota’s Taj Bradley allowed just a run over the same number of frames. But once Williams was pulled from the game the Twins went to work, getting three big RBI hits from Alan Roden, Trevor Larnach and Luke Keaschall.
None was bigger than Roden’s. He had the unenviable task of pinch hitting against Cleveland’s Cade Smith, the best closer in the American League. But Roden drilled the first pitch he saw to tie the game. Two more runs in the top of the 12th and the victory was theirs.
The win went to veteran lefty closer Taylor Rogers and the save to newcomer Jack Anderson, his first.
Zebby Matthews gets the ball on Friday.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 51-53, which puts them 4.5 games back in the division and 2.5 games back of the final wild card spot in the AL. The final spot currently is held by the red-hot Boston Red Sox. But the Twins hold the tiebreaker over the Sox because they swept them at Fenway.
That’s right, Sox fans, take a good hard look in the mirror because your team finished 1-5 against the Twins. Yeah, baby.
–Cleveland’s Williams struck out 11 across seven innings, including an immaculate inning in the fourth. That’s right: three outs on nine pitches.
–Like I said, pitching was the name of the game in this one: The Twins were 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position while the Guards were a disastrous 0-for-17!
–In all seriousness, the Twins need to sweep the A’s and Royals. Want to show the world you really belong? Time to get it done and take care of business. Anything less is going to sting.