Twins Game Recap (9/14): Bullpen, Polanco Move the Needle in Win

Huge win. Huge sigh of relief. Polanco's game has been great lately. Nice way to cobble together a bunch of zeros with all the pitchers. Give credit where it's due: Rocco did a nice job managing this bullpen game.

Would be a heckuva deal if the Twins swept the DH today. Why not?

A good solid baseball game that Twins fans felt was a bubble game. We won. So will leave Cleveland in decent shape. But still two more chances to sink the stake even further.

Hopefully a second win happens today. Crossing fingers

Well-managed game. Smeltzer set a nice tone. Important to get the win.

Nice move to swoop in and remove Duffey after the plunking. The Duffmaster was a little rattled there and Romo is as smooth as Horitos Plata

The bullpen rose up! Rogers is ice. After that bad ball four call he gathered himself nicely.

Great win.   That took care of the 3rd most likely result which was getting swept.   It also flips the likelihood of who wins 2 of 3 since two games between good teams is generally a split.   Also keeps what was the least likely result which was a sweep of the Indians in play.  Great job bullpen including Smelzer.   

I would say anyone who pitched earlier is unavailable tonight. In fact, based on pitches thrown, everyone who pitched today is likely out for tomorrow other than Romo.

So for tonight, I’d say....Thorpe for 4, May for 2, Harper, Romo and...some other guys?

Clippard starting for the Indians. Play loose and hang a big number of him! I’d say they hit at least 3-4 homers in the night cap.

Kind of Symmetrical. Very early in the season before everyone caught fire (it seemed like everyone), it was Polanco who carried us. Now, at the very end...again?

One hell of a game.  And was that the most important game of the year?  Win one and we leave Cleveland in good shape for the championship.  That's in the books.  Win one of the next two and we leave in great shape.  Win both and Happy Days are Hear Again!

They were all very good, but was Littell the best pitcher the Twins threw out there today?  Bullpen is going to be in great shape in the playoffs and next year.  And even better if Dyson gets back to being the pitcher in 2020 that he was earlier this year.

Great win.   That took care of the 3rd most likely result which was getting swept.   It also flips the likelihood of who wins 2 of 3 since two games between good teams is generally a split.   Also keeps what was the least likely result which was a sweep of the Indians in play.  Great job bullpen including Smelzer.   

Just curious why you think it was more likely the Indians would sweep the Twins vs. the opposite.

I love this team.  So resilient.  Hard to believe Kepler and Polanco were able to recreate last night today.

Gutsy team, huge win vs Clevinger.

Agreed and i gladly eat crow. If they can pull off a series win against Cleveland that would be a BIG BIG Victory for this team.

Wow, a 5-hit, 9 SO, 1 BB shutout.  Even in the 6th of today's second game, there's plenty of fine horseflesh to appreciate in the Twins stables.   

We just pushed our division opposition to 5 losses back. A 10 - 5 record against a mess of cupcakes for the rest of the month gets us to 100 wins.  Once we've clinched, there will be plenty of time to sort out a playoff rotation.

Like i said b4 lets mimic last years brew crew with a bullpen game plan to take pineda's spit in the rotation. We can use the parts to take advantage of advantage of any teams splits. We have a good balance a left and right handed pitchers keeping Smeltzer and perez and i would argue Thorpe on post season roster. Sweep this team away and demand they change their name to the cleveland wasps.

Just curious why you think it was more likely the Indians would sweep the Twins vs. the opposite.

 

I love this team.  So resilient.  Hard to believe Kepler and Polanco were able to recreate last night today.

Home field, trending, starting pitching, injuries.    Sweeps were the two least likely occurrences but the same reasons the Indians were favored to take two of three would give them the sweep edge as well.   Given that many here would have been happy to win one of three and a minority but not super small thought being swept was likely I am fairly confident in my odds.  Now Twins taking 2 of 3 is just slightly better odds than us sweeping them.    Good place to be.