Twins 2, Tigers 0: Gray Dominant as Twins Run Win Streak to Six

[Jamie Cameron]

The Twins shut out the Tigers 2-0 on Tuesday, running their win streak to six behind a gem from Sonny Gray.

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Sonny Gray 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
Homeruns: None
Top 3 WPA: Sonny Gray .389, Gio Urshela .148, Carlos Correa .116
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

On Tuesday night, the Twins were out to secure another series win against Detroit. Here’s how they lined up against the Detroit Tigers.

Sonny Gray came out looking comfortable on Tuesday night. Through his first two innings, he allowed two soft singles to Miguel Cabrera and Spencer Torkelson (66 mph and 71 mph respectively). Gray appeared ‘on’ from the get go, locating well, with Ryan Jeffers stealing plenty of close calls for the Twins pitcher.

After a solid first inning, Tigers starter Beau Brieske ran into trouble in the second inning. He walked Max Kepler, who came around to score on a Gio Urshela single. Kepler would have been dead to rights at home plate, had Javy Baez not inexplicably indicated to Tigers’ left fielder Willi Castro to throw to second. The Twins were up, 1-0 after two innings.

The Twins increased the lead in the third inning. Byron Buxton, mired in a slump, just missed a home-run to right center-field. The ball had a .970 xBA and was recorded at 105.7 mph off the bat, a promising sign. A Luis Arraez single and Carlos Correa double increased the lead to 2-0.

In the top of the fourth inning, Jeimer Candelario scalded a ball into the right center field gap. Byron Buxton made his best catch of the season to prevent extra bases for Detroit.

The Twins had a threat in the bottom of the fourth inning. Gio Urshela singled (110 mph) and Jose Miranda doubled (108 mph) to put men on second and third with one out. Ryan Jeffers flew out to center field and Gio Urshela was thrown out at home plate after tagging up at third. At the end of four innings, the Twins led just 2-0 in a game that could have been put on ice. Twins fans have to be encouraged by Miranda, who seems to be driving the ball more consistently in recent games.

Meanwhile, Gray was on cruise control. Through five innings, he had given up three hits, one walk, and struck out six Tigers hitters on just 68 pitchers. In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Twins threatened again. Luis Arraez missed a home run to right field by a few feet and had to settle for a single. Carlos Correa and Gary Sanchez walked to load the bases with Max Kepler up, fresh off a grand slam on Monday night. Kepler flew out to shallow left field, not deep enough for Arraez to tag. Gilberto Celestino grounded out to end the inning. Through five innings, the Twins had seven hits, three walks, but only two runs to show for it.

Gray had retired seven straight hitters when Jonathan Schoop singled in the top of the sixth inning. A rare passed ball by Ryan Jeffers moved Schoop to second base, with no outs. Gray bucked down, striking out two of the next three hitters to escape the inning unscathed, his seventh and eight strikeouts of the game. In the bottom of the inning, Gio Urshela led off with his third hit of the game, before Jose Miranda grounded into a double play to extinguish yet another Twins scoring opportunity. 

Gray came out to start the seventh inning with a pitch count of 83. He left it at 95 pitches, having retired the side in order and struck out 10 in seven innings of scoreless work.

Tyler Duffey relieved Gray in the eighth inning. Duffey struck out two and retired the side in order on just 12 pitches. The Twins offered nothing in the bottom of the eight inning, leaving Jhoan Duran to close the game out for Minnesota. Duran allowed a single to Miguel Cabrera and hit Jeimer Candelario to put runners on first and second base with one out. Duran got Willi Castro to ground into a double play to secure the shutout for the Twins.

The Twins have now won six in a row, their second such streak in 2022. They’ve won four series in a row since being swept by Houston and sit 11 games over .500, with a 5.5 game lead over the White Sox. So sound the clubhouse gong, its just like Max Kepler said, ‘vibes over everything.’

Bullpen Usage Chart

-	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Jax	18	0	0	33	0	51
Pagán	19	0	0	28	0	47
Duran	16	0	17	0	14	47
Duffey	18	0	14	0	12	44
Cano	0	0	38	0	0	38
Smith	0	21	0	17	0	38
Megill	0	0	31	0	0	31
Thielbar	0	18	0	3	0	21
Stashak	0	18	0	0	0	18

Next Up
On Wednesday, the Twins will conclude their series against Detroit. Dylan Bundy starts for Minnesota, against Rony Garcia of the Tigers. First pitch is 12:10 CT. By the way, the game is on YouTube on Wednesday. 

Postgame Interviews

 

 

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[LastOnePicked]

Six game (or more) winning streaks are a rare treat for a fan - and we have two already. Love it. Keep banking these first-half wins, fellas.

[SwainZag]

That's a very short list of pitchers who have put up a line like Gray did tonight.  Dominant performance.  

[USAFChief]

We sometimes give the third base coach crap when someone gets thrown out at home. How about a shout out when he and Kep combined on a beautiful, heads up baserunning play to score the Twins first run. Kepler was off with the pitch and ran hard around second, never taking anything for granted. When the third base coach saw the LFer lob the ball into 2nd, he waived Kepler home, scoring easily. Awesome, heads up, aggressive baseball. Way cool.

[Wyotwinsfan]

Yes great job by Watkins and Kepler.  Great catch by Buxton.  But wow our shortstop has an arm.  Great throw by Correa to finish the game. 

[Monkeypaws]

I had never watched Gray pitch until tonight. Is that a little Jimmy Connors grunt I'm hearing when he throws?

I like his approach. That breaking ball is wicked.

[jimbo92107]

Great defense and pitching in this one, punctuated by the last out, a grounder off Duran, right at the best infielder in the league. Correa grabbed the ball, stomped on second base and delivered a thunderbolt throw to end the game. 

Boom, done! Let's go eat!

[Monticore]

Correa is an impeccable shortstop. A true leader.

[bighat]

6 hours ago, Monkeypaws said:

I had never watched Gray pitch until tonight. Is that a little Jimmy Connors grunt I'm hearing when he throws?

Yep, he's one of "those guys" LOL.

Great effort by Gray, this is the guy we traded for. Spectacular effort.

Unlucky stat line for Arraez, should have had a HR in there, that line drive off the limestone overhang would have been gone in many parks.

Way too many ducks left on the pond tonight. Kepler and Jeffers both had the bases loaded with less than 2 outs and couldn't get a run home. Very uninspiring effort from the offense yet again, averaging 3.5 runs per game against a very shaky Detroit team at home. Where's the beef?

Buxton down to .211. Count me in as officially worried. The good news is that Correa is looking more and more like a guy who can carry this team all by himself.

[rwilfong86]

5 hours ago, Monticore said:

Correa is an impeccable shortstop. A true leader.

Sign him long term. 

[Dman]

Arraez has been locked in this year.  I know they have put him in better spots to succeed but he is a very difficult out right now.  If you are an umpire and he doesn't swing at a pitch at the edge of the zone you are better off calling it a ball than a strike if you want to be right.  His eye is just that good.  And to think I was one of the brainiac's who thought trading him this offseason might make sense.  If he keeps on like this (OPS catching up to Byron Buxton) then his eye and bat are just too valuable to trade.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Gray trade and thought he might be headed for regression but so far he looks better than I thought he would.  With Gray, Ryan and Ober maybe the Twins have enough on the front end to keep the wins coming.  Won't feel safe until the end of the season though because the White Sox have a cake walk schedule in September and could reel the Twins in if they don't have a buffer.

[gunnarthor]

That was a fun game, Gray looked great. 

[tarheeltwinsfan]

7 hours ago, Monticore said:

Correa is an impeccable shortstop. A true leader.

He is worth every penny of the 35 million dollars this year (that's $216,049.38 per game). Hopefully he will be worth every penny of 105 million dollars and will stay at least 3 years as a Minnesota Twin. What a brilliant "out of the box contract" by the FO and Correa's agent. And what a brave commitment by the Twins owner. 

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Both Gray and Correa referred to the brotherhood on the Twins team this year. That is nice to hear, especially from these two recently acquired Twins, who are respected veterans. My question is this: "Which came first, the brotherhood or the wins?"

[roger]

Isn't it exciting watching every time Arraez steps up to the plate?  What is different this year is that he appears to be healthy and having fun, a lot of fun.  I also see a bit of La Tortue in this young man.

Great article in the Strib this morning about how he spent much of the winter in the D.R. working with Nelson Cruz.  Also mentioned that he came to spring training in better shape.  Could be a special season.  Love the results.

[wabene]

I'll take the smooth vocal stylings of the Hawk any day. At one point last night when he piped up I realized we had had some delicious moments of silence. Less is MORE.

JM seems like a nice guy but man, edit, edit, edit. Every game I say to the TV, alright ALRIGHT, I get it man.

[terrydactyls]

1 hour ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

He is worth every penny of the 35 million dollars this year (that's $216,049.38 per game). Hopefully he will be worth every penny of 105 million dollars and will stay at least 3 years as a Minnesota Twin. What a brilliant "out of the box contract" by the FO and Correa's agent. And what a brave commitment by the Twins owner. 

Be careful.  I think it is against Twins Daily bylaws to complement the front office for making an off-season signing.

[terrydactyls]

11 hours ago, jimbo92107 said:

Great defense and pitching in this one, punctuated by the last out, a grounder off Duran, right at the best infielder in the league. Correa grabbed the ball, stomped on second base and delivered a thunderbolt throw to end the game. 

Boom, done! Let's go eat!

The final out was mentioned several times so I went to YouTube for highlights.  Yikes...  What a rifle to 1st after the out at second.  With all the speed, velo, exit measurements, why not a "how fast was that throw to first" measurement?  And not just a rocket, but with perfect accuracy.  Wow.....

By the way,  I like defense.

[2wins87]

I thought the Duran v Cabrera matchup was interesting.  Duran and Jeffers elected to go all 4-seamers (maybe give the credit/blame more to Jeffers as I don't think Duran shook off any calls).  Maybe they just didn't want to give him a chance to hit any of his slower offerings, maybe they thought he didn't have the bat speed anymore.  But even with an elite fastball, I don't think you can give a future hall of famer that many looks at one pitch without mixing it up.  Cabrera got the better of the at bat; hopefully Jeffers and Duran will learn.

On the other hand, Sonny Gray looked fantastic.  I really liked him as a get-out-of-Yankee-Stadium bounce-back candidate in 2019.  The Twins had there eyes on Pineda instead, and the Reds got Gray and signed him to a great extension.  I'm glad the Twins were able to get in on that deal this year and expect him to be well worth the $12 million option next year. 

 

[2wins87]

1 hour ago, roger said:

Isn't it exciting watching every time Arraez steps up to the plate?  What is different this year is that he appears to be healthy and having fun, a lot of fun.  I also see a bit of La Tortue in this young man.

Great article in the Strib this morning about how he spent much of the winter in the D.R. working with Nelson Cruz.  Also mentioned that he came to spring training in better shape.  Could be a special season.  Love the results.

Is it just me, or does he look faster this year?  I looked up his sprint speed and it's basically the same as last year, so maybe he just looks better while running.  Could be his knee is feeling better this year.

I really enjoy watching him too.

[insagt1]

TWins are winning without any offensive contributions from Buxton. Imagine what the lineup will look like when Buck finally snaps out of this very serious slump. Hope this isn't because of an injury that is being hidden. It has gotten very concerning, but hopefully he'll eventually battle out of it. As for Arraez--probably the best trade never made. He's sure a gamer and willing to play anywhere.

[MMMordabito]

Luis Arraez is currently in the top 10 in OPS in the AL with 1 HR.  That's how good he is at getting on base.

[Doctor Gast]

Gray was great, he looked like an ace tonight. I think he's ready to take off. Duran was great closing again. Great D and nice timely hits by Correa, Urshella ans Araez. Thought the Twins would blow the Detroit away but Detroit is pesky. A win is a win.

[jmlease1]

Gray was terrific, and exactly the guy we were hoping for when we traded for him. The trick for him is really just keeping him healthy. If he can avoid those nagging injuries that make him miss 1-3 starts here and there over the course of the season then we're going to be really happy with him leading the rotation. Lovely to see him get through 7 and give the bullpen a break.

Urshela's on a 4 game hitting streak and is showing good contact skills, bringing that BA up. Would like to see a little more power from him, but he's doing a great job controlling the strike zone right now, so if he keeps getting on base like this (and not racking up Ks) to go along with his fine defense, that'll be just ducky.

I'd love for the offense to put some more runs up on the board, but when the HRs aren't flying it's always going to be lower outputs. There's just a greater chance for double plays to kill a rally, it takes more clustered hits & walks to get it done...it's why hitting for power is one of the most important skills in generating runs (along with avoiding outs). But I feel good with the power capacity for this team overall, so I think the scoring will be there.

Nice job by Duffey to have an easy and clean 8th. He seems to have settled in pretty well in May: 10 appearances, 7 "clean sheets" (no baserunners), only 2 walks in the whole month, 10 Ks in 10 1/3 innings...feels pretty good.

[Epravens]

A pure joy to watch a pitcher, not a thrower, in action.