Twins 3, Tigers 2: Almost blowing a save is still a save

The Twins were carried by good pitching throughout most of the game as they take the first game of the series.

It was a fairly quiet game tonight from both teams, as the Twins pitching carried their 3 runs to a victory. Charlie Barnes tossed 4 scoreless innings to start the game, and the bullpen didn’t give up anything in the next 4 innings, with Jorge Alcala, Tyler Duffey, Caleb Thielbar, and Ralpha Garza Jr. each picking up a shutout inning.

Of course, you can’t win if you don’t score at least one run (I think), and the Twins hitters accomplished that task. In the 3rd, Mitch Garver drove in one with a sac-fly RBI. They didn’t score again until the 7th, with Miguel Sano’s 30th homer this year, a solo shot. A walk, a single, and a sac-fly RBI from Max Kepler made it a 3-0 ballgame. Those insurance runs would prove useful.

Everything was looking great for Minnesota until the 9th inning, where we all were subjected to the Alex Colome experience. With 2 outs and a runner at 3rd, Akil Baddoo hit a run-scoring single, then advanced to second on defensive indifference. Jonathan Schoop followed with an RBI single to make it 3-2 bringing yet another former Twin, Robbie Grossman, to the plate. Robbie was a good sport, though, and struck out to end the threat and the game at 3-2.

Studs:

Miguel Sano: Hit a dinger.

Garver, Kepler: Each picked up a sac-fly.

All of the pitchers except for Colome: 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 7 K.

Duds:

NO DUDS TWINS WIN!

Robot Roll Call!