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  • Twins 6, White Sox 3: Team Effort Leads to Twins 50th Win

    Sherry Cerny

    By Sherry Cerny

    The Twins came into Saturday's game looking to get their first win of the series as they battled the White Sox in Game 3 of a four-game series. 

    Image courtesy of Bruce Klukhohn, USA Today

    Box Score
    SP: Dylan Bundy (5.1 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 K (88 pitches, 65 strikes (74%))
    Home Runs:  Luis Arraez (4), Carlos Correa (10), Jorge Polanco (13)
    Top 3 WPA: Carlos Correa (.148), Jorge Polanco (.113), Dylan Bundy (.082)

    Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

    image.png.3ed20bd80df063ca4cec41f0fed363ad.png

    It was a good day at Target Field on Saturday. Before the game, Twins legend Jim Kaat saw his #36 retired by the Twins in front of family, friends, and former teammates. Many spoke about his leadership, work ethic and status in Twins Territory. 

    The Twins retired number 36 today just a few weeks before Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva get inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. There to help him reveal his number were the two other players who also wore number 36, former pitchers Joe Nathan and Terry Steinbach. 

    Jim Kaat’s grandkids reveal his officially retired number on the wall as he held his wife’s hand as the black drape fell revealing a number that will now live in Twins infamy. 

    The most memorable moment was watching his former catcher, George Mitterwald catch Kaat’s ceremonial first pitch. Congrats to Jim Kaat!

    And now, onto the game…

    Dylan Bundy came out in the first inning and meant business. Through the first three innings, Bundy kept the White Sox off the board. In the fourth inning, a few singles added up to one run scoring.

    Bundy kept a low pitch count and was able to stay in the game into six innings. He surrendered two more runs in the sixth inning before Trevor Megill came on to end the threat with some help from Max Kepler who made a terrific sliding catch to end the inning. 

    The Twins offense came out swinging (pun intended). The lineup has really struggled to manufacture runs the last two games, simply owned by the White Sox pitching. However, Luis Arraez said ‘not today’ as he stepped into the batter's box and got the Twins on the board with a solo home run in the first inning and the lead for the first time in the series. 

    Gary Sanchez led off the third inning with a single deep down the third baseline. He wasn’t there long before Carlos Correa crushed a two-run home run to widen the Twins lead to three. The fun kept coming as Byron Buxton and Max Kepler singled and scored on a three-run home run from Jorge Polanco who hit a ball deep to right field, his 20th homer off of White Sox pitching (in his career) and his sixth home run of the month of July. 

    The Twins tried to add some insurance in the sixth inning as the bases loaded up with a single from Alex Kirilloff, a double from Gio Urshela and a walk from Gary Sanchez to load the bases. However, all were stranded as Luis Arraez grounded out to the shortstop. 

    The White Sox continued to threaten at least a tie game throughout the eighth, but the Twins defense backed up the bullpen pitcher Jhoan Duran who faced the heart of the Sox lineup in a scoreless eighth. 

    Tyler Duffey got loose in the bullpen as Duran came back out in the ninth. However, Duran fought through the ninth in the heat and humidity as his pitch count rose. With two outs on the board, he battled against Tim Anderson through ten pitches. With a runner on third base, Anderson continued to foul off everything that was thrown at him until he hit a chopper to Urshela who threw to first to end the inning and Game 3 of the series. 

    It felt great to get one in the win column. Do you see the Twins splitting the series with the White Sox? 

    What’s Next? 
    Sunday is the last game of the Twins and White Sox Series and the last game before the All-Star Break. 

    Pitching matchup for Sunday: 

    Postgame Interviews 

    Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

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    Follow Sherry Cerny on Twitter: MNSotaSportsGal

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    SanoMustGo

    SanoMustGo 590

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    1 hour ago, puckstopper1 said:

    Glad to see the Twins version of Lance Lynn pitched for the Chisox at Target Field today... ?

    The Twins really needed that win today.  Now lets get the split tomorrow!

    visions of Matt Shoemaker?

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    bighat

    bighat 7,885

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Nice to see Correa connect, just his 2nd homer of July as he's hitting .182 for the month. Buxton's now in the bottom 10% of the league in strikeout percentage. Let's hope the break allows those guys to reset. 

    Another Twins game where they have one big inning early, but fail to add on. Not sure why they are so prone to this particular phenomenon. 

    Sano hit two homers last night in St. Paul. Bring him up, I think the Twins offense is pretty flat right now and it's worth the gamble. 

    Polanco is en fuego, while Arraez continues to be the best player on the team. Bundy's regained something, who knows how, but we'll take it. The guy might be the Twins best starter right now. Can't believe I just wrote that. 

     

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    Whitey333

    Whitey333 1,472

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Hope Twins can sneak out a win Sunday.  Dylan Cease for Sox is an exceptionally good pitcher.  It could be quite the challenge.  Twins have four inning Archer going.  Lots of bullpen usage today.  But they have almost a whole week off before their next game.  Twins won Saturday scoring all their runs early and offense dissappearing again for most of the game.  Twins have still lost 6 of their last 9 and looked pretty lethargic.  Big game on Sunday.  A loss would give Chicago 3 of 4 in the series.  A Twins win however would split the series and Chicago would be right back where they were when the series started.  Go Twins

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    jorgenswest

    jorgenswest 5,941

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    I believe all three runners that scored got on base on a ball where Urshela had a chance to make a play.

    In the 4th Moncada hit a dribbler towards 3B. Urshela bare handed the ball but then his throw pulled Arraez off the bag. Moncada later scored.

    In the 6th Anderson hit a ball to Urshela’s right who gets a glove on it. I thought this one should have been an error. Moncada then hit a blooper down the line. Urshela chased it down and got a glove on it but couldn’t secure it. Both runners came around to score.

    Three earned runs credited. I think a major league 3B should the routine play and one of the other two on a typical day. Very good defensive 3Bs make all three plays. I thought in a typical Urshela day he would make two of the plays but maybe it is time for me to start believing the metrics that have him with a mediocre glove. He certainly did not pass the eye test yesterday.

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    jmlease1

    jmlease1 6,071

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    35 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

    I believe all three runners that scored got on base on a ball where Urshela had a chance to make a play.

    In the 4th Moncada hit a dribbler towards 3B. Urshela bare handed the ball but then his throw pulled Arraez off the bag. Moncada later scored.

    In the 6th Anderson hit a ball to Urshela’s right who gets a glove on it. I thought this one should have been an error. Moncada then hit a blooper down the line. Urshela chased it down and got a glove on it but couldn’t secure it. Both runners came around to score.

    Three earned runs credited. I think a major league 3B should the routine play and one of the other two on a typical day. Very good defensive 3Bs make all three plays. I thought in a typical Urshela day he would make two of the plays but maybe it is time for me to start believing the metrics that have him with a mediocre glove. He certainly did not pass the eye test yesterday.

    Seems a little harsh. I was at the game, and literally no one in the section was thinking Urshela deserved an error yesterday. He didn't come up with a superior play, but none of those were routine. Twins defense wasn't bad in this game, but they didn't have a lot of extra, gold-glove quality play when they had some opportunities. (Kepler not hanging on to a deep fly where he bounced off the wall is another example; a better read and he settles under that one I think, but it wasn't an easy play...just one that we've seen him make before) Correa was the defensive stalwart if anyone.

    Lovely day for a game and great to see Kaat honored. Really wish we could have turned another DP, because it's just so much fun to watch it live and have a whole bunch of people cheering "One...two!" all at the same time. :)

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    Blyleven2011

    Blyleven2011 993

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    A great win we needed and on kaat's day ....

    Another of my childhood hero's honored by the twins  ... ( WHAT TOOK SO LONG )  ,,, 

    KITTY KAAT  has the most wins in twins history  as a lefthanded pitcher ,,, it was a sad day when Calvin  let him walk  ...

    Kitty pitched Another 10 years after 15 years with the twins ,,, Calvin thought the arm was toast  ....

    I wish some of you younger twins fans could have seen these earlier  hero's  ,,,

    THEY TOOK THE FIELD  AND CAME TO PLAY

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    Riverbrian

    Riverbrian 32,096

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

    Lance Lynn is exactly the type of player that I fear the most... If he was on my team.

    You can be competitive with average performance. 

    You can survive below average performance.

    Terrible performance is what kills your team. 

    Lance Lynn has been terrible and they keep tossing him out there because he has another year on his contract and he can't be sent down. 

    This is the type of player that I fear the most. The terrible player who can't be dealt with. 

    Lynn, Grandal, Moncada and Giolito can't be sent down, are not going to be cut. Collectively they add up to a 57 million dollar investment in something that the rest of the team has to rise up to overcome. 

    You can be competitive with average performance.

    You can survive below average. 

    Terrible performance will kill your hopes and dreams. 

     

     

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