Twins Video
Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs)
Brian Dozier led off the game with a home run, his sixth big fly already this month. That’s now 19 of Dozier’s 23 homers this season that have been solo shots. Miguel Sano also homered, driving a two-run shot in the third inning. In contrast, 15 of Sano’s 26 homers have been with runners on.
In between those two taters was a whole lotta bunting. The Twins offense has been hotter than a furnace, but they decided to give away a bunch of outs early in this one. They bunted three times in the first three innings, one of which was a successful squeeze bunt by Byron Buxton and one was an unsuccessful sacrifice by Robbie Grossman in which the lead runner was thrown out.
They were feeling awfully generous on defense, too.
Twins were up 4-1 in the fifth inning, but opened that frame with a Miguel Sano missed-catch error at first base. Things got really weird from there, as Chris Gimenez had an implosion behind the plate. Four balls got by Gimenez in the inning, three were scored passed balls and the other was credited as a wild pitch to Ervin Santana. To put that into perspective, Jason Castro has just four passed balls all season.
https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/896825314499842048
That fifth inning was Santana’s last, as he gave up four runs (two earned) on seven hits. He walked two batters, hit another and had six strikeouts.
The score stayed knotted at 4-4 until the eighth. The inning opened with back-to-back walks. Jorge Polanco, just about the hottest hitter in baseball, bunted to move the runners up before Buxton hit the go-ahead single into center field. Ehire Adrianza followed with a sac fly to put the Twins up two runs.
After a dreadful Saturday night, the bullpen got back on track. Alan Busenitz pitched a scoreless sixth. Tyler Duffey followed with 1.2 scoreless innings. He entered the game in a tie for fifth among AL relievers in most appearances recording more than three outs. Trevor Hildenberger, pitching for the third straight day, recorded the final out of the eighth and stayed out there for the ninth inning to earn his first career save.
Eddie Rosario has been outstanding this season, and added two more hits today, but he also provides plenty of “what the …” moments. Sunday, he struck out on a ball that was thrown at his face.
https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/896820373513228288
Postgame With Hildenberger
https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/896839221599641601
Twins W-L Record
Overall: 59-57 (.509)
Last 10: 8-2 (.800)
Last 20: 10-10 (.500)
Last 40: 19-21 (.475)
Last 80: 40-40 (.500)
AL Central Standings
Cleveland 63-52
Minnesota 59-57 (-4.5)
AL Wild Card Standings
WC1: Yankees 61-54
WC2: Minnesota 59-57, Angels 60-58 (tied, Sunday LAA game in progress)
Seattle 59-59 (-1.0, Sunday game in progress)
Kansas City 58-58 (-1.0, Sunday game in progress)
Defensive Lineups
Here’s a look at the starting lineups from the past seven games:
Bullpen Usage
Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:
Looking Ahead
Mon: Off
Tue: Twins (Bartolo Colon) vs. Cleveland (Danny Salazar), 7:10 pm CT
Wed: Twins (Kyle Gibson) vs. Cleveland (Carlos Carrasco), 7:10 pm CT
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