Twins 9, Tigers 1: Twins Crush Tigers in Quick Two-Game Sweep

[Theo Tollefson]

The Twins finished their quick two game pit stop in Detroit with another win, making up for their first trip to the Motor City this season. The win gave the Twins a slight cushion over the Guardians and White Sox, while Jose Miranda had one of his best games. 

 

Box Score
SP: Sonny Gray 6 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K (84 pitches, 55 strikes (65.4 strike %))
Home Runs: None
Top 3 or Bottom 3 WPA: Sonny Gray .237, Jorge Polanco .088, Jose Miranda .076

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

The Twins wasted no time getting runs on the board to start Sunday afternoon in Detroit. Carlos Correa and Jorge Polanco got back-to-back one out hits on a single and double and Correa scored first on a Max Kepler RBI fielder's choice where he reached base safely. 

In the next at-bat, Alex Kirilloff drove in Polanco on an E3 advancing himself to second and Kepler to third. Following Kirilloff’s at-bat, Tigers starter Rony Garica lost complete control of the strike zone as he hit back-to-back hitters with pitches. First Nick Gordon, then Jose Miranda who drove in Kepler with abases-loadedd RBI. 

The Twins fell short of sending all hitters up to the plate in the top of the first as the inning of errors ended with Gio Urshela grounding into a double play. 

Sonny Gray kept the Tigers scoreless in the first two innings retiring the minimum in that frame. During the top of the third, another Twins batter was hit by a pitch, this time Kepler, who was hit hard in the wrong spot that he needed to come out of the game and was replaced by Gilberto Celestino in right. 

The substitution of Celestino shifted the outfield up a bit for the bottom of the third. Celestino moved into center field shifting Gordon to left and Kirilloff to right for the remainder of the game. The outfield did not have to move at all after shifting positions as Gray retired all three Tigers in order without a ball hit outside the infield.

Gray’s perfect streak would end in the bottom of the fourth when he hit Javier Baez with a pitch. Baez would score the Tigers first run of the game on an RBI single from catcher Eric Haase. Even with the hiccup of three base runners in the fourth, Gray would avoid any more damage and keep the Twins lead at 3-1.

Gray would keep the Tigers bats quiet once again in the fifth and sixth innings. The Twins bats would have another go around with the Tigers bullpen in the top of the seventh as they scored three more runs against them. The three runs were produced by an Urshela double that scored Miranda, Arraez RBI single, and another Polanco double, making it his second multi-double game of the season.

Polanco’s only other multi-double game of 2022 was on May 1 against Tampa Bay in a 9-3 Twins win. 

Gray was done for the afternoon following the sixth inning, allowing only four base runners through those six innings of work. This was Gray’s first start allowing four base runners or less since June 15 in Seattle where he allowed only three base runners on 3 hits in five innings against the Mariners. 

Griffin Jax came into the game in the seventh, making his first relief appearance since July 16. Although he gave up a lead-off double, Jax retired the next three in order giving the Twins a scoreless inning in his first outing for the second half. 

Going into the top of the eighth, the Twins held a healthy 6-1 lead over the Tigers. The Twins batters thought a couple more runs wouldn’t hurt to add on. Miranda and Urshela reached base once again to give Gary Sanchez an opportunity to tack more runs on. And add to the lead he did as Sanchez smacked an RBI double scoring both teammates to make it a 8-1, Twins lead. 

Jharel Cotton had the bottom of the eighth for the Twins. Cotton made his first career appearance against the Tigers this afternoon and looked as if he had a home run surrendered to rookie Riley Greene. Greene would never see that ball land over the fence as Gordon robbed him of his third career home run.

The Twins would lead off the top of the ninth with back-to-back singles from Celestino and Kirilloff. Gordon would ground out into a double play in the next at-bat, but Miranda would follow up with another hit, his third of the day, and an RBI, scoring Celestino and making it a 9-1 lead.

The ninth would go to Joe Smith to close out the win for the Twins. With great struggles in July posting a 34.62 FIP in two relief appearances for the month. An appearance with an 8 run lead against the worst offense in baseball seemed a safe time to put Smith in. Smith would retire the minimum on 16 pitches to give the Twins their 9-1 win. 

What’s Next? 
The Twins are off on Monday and will resume play Tuesday in Milwaukee for another two-game series against the Brewers. Dylan Bundy will make the start for the Twins while the Brewers have yet to announce a starter for Tuesday. 

Postgame Interview (Bally Sports Tweets)

 

 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

 

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[ashbury]

I think the injury report is trying to hint that Max is one of those rare individuals with six toes per foot.

[PopRiveter]

Bless the Detroit Tigers.

[Twinsoholic]

Look at the number of rbis Miranda already has. Compare his total with some of the teammates who have been on the Twins roster all season. Miranda is doing a great job of bringing home runners who get into scoring position. He was lucky with his first rbi today as his uniform was brushed by a pitch. Gordon set that rbi up by getting “hit” on a shoelace. I am super impressed by Miranda so far. 

[ashbury]

13 minutes ago, PopRiveter said:

Bless the Detroit Tigers.

"Bless their hearts," she said in her thick southern accent.  "They try."

[Dave The Dastardly]

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

"Bless their hearts," she said in her thick southern accent.  "They try."

"Well, bless their little ol' hearts," she gushed in a southern accent thicker than Louisiana gumbo. "They try harder than a skinny Sunday preacher passing the collection plate!"

 

 

[USAFChief]

Quick review of Comerica:

Really nice ballpark. Great sight lines, fairly close to the action. Minimal food options* in the ballpark proper, just endless repeats of the same few options, all blocking views from the concourses. Tough getting there, and leaving, but great built up area around the park for before/after.

*Two really neat areas inside the park: a huge outdoor picnic area with a kid's ferris wheel behind HP with an actual working open pit BBQ that upgrades the food options by a million percent. There's also a kind of food court area with multiple good options and a merry go round. 

Best feature: the absute best seating I've ever seen, these are the last 10 rows or so of the lower bowl from 1st to 3rd. Spacious, comfy, table for every 2 seats, waiter service. Dunno what they cost, but from what I hear you can sneak into 1 by the 3rd inning or so. 

 

 

 

 

[Mortimerkenny21]

33 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Quick review of Comerica:

Really nice ballpark. Great sight lines, fairly close to the action. Minimal food options* in the ballpark proper, just endless repeats of the same few options, all blocking views from the concourses. Tough getting there, and leaving, but great built up area around the park for before/after.

*Two really neat areas inside the park: a huge outdoor picnic area with a kid's ferris wheel behind HP with an actual working open pit BBQ that upgrades the food options by a million percent. There's also a kind of food court area with multiple good options and a merry go round. 

Best feature: the absute best seating I've ever seen, these are the last 10 rows or so of the lower bowl from 1st to 3rd. Spacious, comfy, table for every 2 seats, waiter service. Dunno what they cost, but from what I hear you can sneak into 1 by the 3rd inning or so. 

 

 

 

 

Awesome looking seats! And a killer pair of dad shoes!

[SanoMustGo]

Nice to see two solid wins.  What is important now is to see more consistency.  Obviously we won't win every game 9-1, and still need some pitching help, but this is a good start.  I'm not always bitching and complaining, but the last 45 or so games has been frustrating as a fan.

[BH67]

The Twins had nine off days between April 8 and July 17 -- and seven more between July 18 and July 28.  Kudos to R&R for its contributions to a great baseball weekend.

[Doctor Gast]

Nice to see all our pitchers rested up and pitching well, together with a fired up line-up. It'd nice if they stay rested up through the season and thru out the post season.

[ashbury]

2 hours ago, Dave The Dastardly said:

"Well, bless their little ol' hearts," she gushed in a southern accent thicker than Louisiana gumbo. "They try harder than a skinny Sunday preacher passing the collection plate!"

 

 

Bless my heart, I tried, but you excelled.

[Aerodeliria]

Great wins!

I would request reporters to start asking more interesting questions or players to start giving more interesting responses

AM: What's it like knowing that as 7-8-9 hitters you are still actually professional ball players who are better than 6th grade pony leaguers? Explain to me how that is possible? Did you realize you actually got some hits during this two game series?

GU: So many good questions. Thank you for letting me know. I didn't know that I even got on base. Did I score any runs? (AM head nodding) Wow. I thought that was last year when I was still on the Yankees. It's good to know that I am still on the team and contributing.

AM: How big is it knowing that Sonny Gray can pitch like he did today?

GU: Sonny Gray? Oh he's a legend. I love the way he plays trumpet. Is he still around? When did he become a baseball player? Anyway, playing the trumpet and pitching...that's huge!

AM: You ran through a stop sign. What about that?

GU: Yeah, I know but I live on kind of a quiet street and there aren't any cops around most of the time, so I sometimes just roll through...Wait, how do you know that?

[Unwinder]

Small sample size against a bad team so it probably means nothing, but it looks like the all-star break recharged some pitchers who needed it. It's a relief to see Ryan and Gray come back strong, not to mention a good inning from Smith.

Also: it's almost hilarious to see Kepler get injured just when Sano needs a spot. These roster decisions really have a way of taking care of themselves.

[Whitey333]

It's hard to evaluate the Twins these past two games against the Tigers.  Twins did a great job of taking advantage of a very poor and depleted team.  Hopefully we can win a few out of the next 5 against Brewers and Padres.  Both very good teams.  Cleveland has a couple of tough series coming up as well.  In the meantime White Sox next 19 games are against Rockies, A's, Royals, Tigers.  A little bit of an opening coming up for the White Sox.  It's time for them to make their move if they can.  Twins just need to take care of themselves.  We are below .500 the past 50 games.  Go Twins!

[jmlease1]

Twins know how to get well against the Tigers this year. And any road win is a good win. I also recall that at the start of the season a lot of people were picking the Tigers to be a quality team this year, which is a reminder that it's not that easy to go from being a bad team to a good one (and makes the Twins rebound a pretty great one).

Miranda is looking like the hitter we hoped he'd be at the plate. His first month was pretty rough, but he broke out on May 20 and has been hitting ever since. It would be nice to see him take a few more walks and rack fewer Ks, but overall he's doing just fine in his first chance at MLB. Can he defend well enough to hold down 3B full-time next season? 

Hope Kepler isn't seriously hurt. Toe injuries are weird: it seems like no big deal until you get one and then it messes everything up. There's not all that much you can do about them except wait for them to heal, and it's easy to accidentally ding it again while healing.

[Rosterman]

I like when Cleveland and Chicago play each other and the Twins win!

I can live with this lineup, and I love our top two starters.

Let's take the next two-game series, too.

[BH67]

Somebody else has noticed Luis Arraez's elevated MLB status.  See the aptly numbered 2-Down clue in this crossword puzzle published this morning:

https://www.brendanemmettquigley.com/files/1490ThemelessMonday.pdf

[ashbury]

59 minutes ago, BH67 said:

Somebody else has noticed Luis Arraez's elevated MLB status.  See the aptly numbered 2-Down clue in this crossword puzzle published this morning:

https://www.brendanemmettquigley.com/files/1490ThemelessMonday.pdf

Quigley's a major league puzzle constructor.  Kudos on being on his radar, Luis!

[Major League Ready]

21 hours ago, Twinsoholic said:

Look at the number of rbis Miranda already has. Compare his total with some of the teammates who have been on the Twins roster all season. Miranda is doing a great job of bringing home runners who get into scoring position. He was lucky with his first rbi today as his uniform was brushed by a pitch. Gordon set that rbi up by getting “hit” on a shoelace. I am super impressed by Miranda so far. 

Here is the ranking of Twins top 10 hitters by OPS since the date (may 20th) you referenced.  

 Jose Miranda   .906
 Luis Arraez      .870
Jorge Polanco  .859  
Carlos Correa   .853  
Kyle Garlick       .818   
Alex Kirilloff      .796  
Gio Urshela        .781  
Byron Buxton     .746  
Nick Gordon        .742  
10    Max Kepler  .698