A week of winning!
Last Sunday, the morale surrounding the Minnesota Twins ball club could not have been more stagnant after a collapse in Detroit, being swept in Baltimore, and again succumbing to the Big Cats at the homestead.
This past week, the wretched White Sox provided a respite—but was it for real or an incompetence-induced mirage? Well, though the Los Angeles Angels didn’t exactly field a defense of Ozzie Smith’s out there, I think it is safe to say after consummating another sweep this afternoon that the Twins are playing better baseball.
The Twins got on the board first in this contest with Jose Miranda singling in Byron Buxton in the top of the 4th. They quickly opened things up even more in the next frame on run-producing knocks from Austin Martin & Ryan Jeffers plus a Manuel Margot sacrifice fly.
Up 5-0 and with Pablo Lopez cruising (0 H in 4 IP), the visitors looked to have this one set on cruise control—enough so that this recapper thought it safe to begin composing a winning write-up. Predictably, the curse of hubris firmly descended upon Pablo, who quasi-melted down in the bottom of the fifth, allowing a double and back-to-back home runs to bring the Halos within one (5-4).
With my laptop firmly closed, MN immediately re-entered the chat. In the top of the 7th, a bases-loaded ground-rule double from pinch-hitter Alex Kirilloff sent the carousel in motion once again. After a Carlos Santana RBI groundout and a Willi Castro single, the good guys had upped the margin to 9-4.
Though Mike Trout broke out of a slump to drive in an LAA run in the bottom of the 7th, it was all Minnesota from that point—further run-producing pokes from Jeffers & Miranda putting this one out to pasture.
It cannot go unmentioned that in nearly every offensive rally concocted today the Twins were helped by the stone-gloved, mis-communicating Angel defenders. I would expect the postgame briefing from manager Ron Washington to be a George Knox duck-and-cover sort of affair.
The final: Minnesota Twins 11, Los Angeles Angels 5.
The bottom line is this: after seven days ago seeing the season start to slip away a smidge, YOUR Minnesota Twins have rattled off a seven game win streak and are now a winning club. A truly remarkable stretch to right the ship! Even further positivity might be on the immediate horizon: the team charter will take them to Chicago’s South Side for another Sox battle M-W, Carlos Correa may be re-joining them in the Windy City, and Jhoan Duran doesn’t seem too far behind.
Studs
- The entire offense—17 hits and 11 runs!
- Cole Sands, Griffin Jax, and Steven Okert covering the final four frames and allowing just a single foot on The Big A’s home plate.
- Angels reliever Zac Kristofak making his MLB debut. He was roughed up (2 IP, 2 R—both unearned), but after reading his story here one can’t help but root for the guy.
Duds
- Pretty much every Angel claiming to be a “defender” today.
Comment of the Game
- norff’s depiction of the summer sausage apparently powering the offensive explosion.