The Minnesota Twins dropped to 8-6 on the season and lose another close game due to a starting pitcher not being able to finish his start, and the bullpen continuing to be shaky.

Jorge Polanco was able to get the game going by hitting a solo shot in the third inning and has his average sitting at .415. The Twins hit a total of three home runs tonight with Eddie Rosario adding a 3-run shot in the sixth (another time the Twins answer after allowing runs in the half inning before) and Marwin Gonzalez opening up the ninth with a solo shot to get it within one.

It was great seeing the power in the lineup tonight, but besides the homeruns, we only had one other extra base hit and it didn't even matter because C.J. Cron was thrown out at home to end the game on it. On that call to send him, it's tricky to tell if that was the right call. If you ask me, I like it and here's why:

First off, I like that the Twins are being aggressive on the base paths. Obviously, Cron is one of the only players currently on the roster that probably gets thrown out there (Cruz being the other) but being aggressive on the base paths will be the reason we win games this year instead of losing them. Also, I know Kepler was on a hitting streak going into the game and it might've been extended while giving the Twins a win, honestly, I don't want the game in his hands. Even with his hit streak, he's only batting .259 on the season. Also, something I didn't notice right away, Byron Buxton ended up on third base on that play. The guy is freakishly fast, and even though the game ended, what heads up baseball that was to get there.

However, the game shouldn't have come down to that in the first place because, unfortunately, the bats weren't enough tonight with how our pitchers performed. Kyle Gibson was the starter for this game and pitched a solid five innings, but apparently, that seems to be his max. Through five innings, Gibson had only given up one hit and two walks. This, however, was his third start of the season, but was only the first time making it farther than 4.2 innings. He ended up finishing with 5.1 innings with 4 earned runs, but didn't get the loss. Ryne Harper tried to come in and finish off the fifth but ended up allowing two hits, which fell onto Gibson for ER. Trevor May came in for the next inning and struggled as well giving up two ER on one hit and two walks in .2 of an inning. Trevor Hildenberger came in to try and finish the seventh but gave up one hit to score the sixth run, but was able to get out of the inning on poor base running by the Jays. Tyler Duffey then came in to make his season debut and pitched two shutout innings with one hit and one walk.

Pitching hasn't been a small issue, either. Our starting rotation has hurt our bullpen this year. Jose Berrios has been our only consistent starter who can go more than six innings and not blow it at the end of his start. Jake Odorizzi has started three games and has only pitched 11.1 innings, Gibson in his three starts has 14.2 innings, and Pineda (who has an excuse) has 15 innings in three starts. Berrios, in four starts, has 27.1 innings. Especially with how heavy our schedule is right now, we need to rely on our starters to give us a quality six innings through this long stretch.

The Twins have dropped the first two games in this series when both games were winnable and move to 8-6 with two games left in the series. I'd hope that they can turn this around and tie this series before going on the road to face the Orioles.

This is my first blog about the Twins, but I will try and write as often as I can. Let me know what you think and I hope you continue reading!