Ben Fadden

The Padres and Twins faced off in a two game series on Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon. The Padres won game one with the Twins splitting the series winning game two. In Game 1, San Diego won 3-0 even though it was a very fast game until the eighth when the Padres broke it open with a 2-run home run from catcher Austin Hedges over the right field wall. Jose Berrios was decent on Tuesday night giving up only two hits during his seven innings of work. Berrios stuck out four and only walked two batters in a solid outing. He allowed only one earned run on a sacrifice fly by Manuel Margot scoring Hunter Renfroe in the bottom of the sixth inning. While Berrios was decent, Jhoulys Chacin was even better. It may not have looked like it because Minnesota just couldn't get on base. Chacin went seven innings, gave up three hits, zero earned runs, walked two, and struck out three. Minnesota couldn't get on base at all it seemed like as Max Kepler had a rare 0-4 night while Sano only had one hit. The Twins bright spot in the game was that they got back young outfielder Byron Buxton. He was on the disabled list with a groin strain and missed 14 games with the big league club partly because he was rehabbing in Rochester. In his first game back he went 1-4. In Game 2 of the series at Petco Park, Ervin Santana and Miguel Sano led the way as the Twins beat San Diego 5-2. Ervin Santana pitched a complete game throwing nine innings giving up only four hits and two earned runs on a home run by Jose Pirela in the bottom of the fourth. Santana struck out nine and walked only one as Minnesota cruised to a victory. Luis Perdomo struggled with his control letting the pitcher, Ervin Santana, hit a two run RBI single in the second inning. After the Santana single, he ended up scoring on a single by Escobar making it 4-0 at the moment. Then, he gave up a home run that was a no doubter to Miguel Sano that was absolutely crushed over the center field wall. Still with no definite closer, I believe it was good to keep Santana in there since he was dealing to give the bullpen arms some rest. Minnesota opens up a home stand on Thursday back in Minneapolis against the Texas Rangers at 7:10 CT.

The San Diego Padres will host the Minnesota Twins starting on Tuesday with a night game and then ending the two game series with a day game on Wednesday. The Padres enter the series with a record of 47-58 and the Twins are 50-53. The Padres won four in a row before before losing to Pittsburgh on Sunday while Minnesota got swept by Los Angeles and lost the series over the weekend in Oakland. In Game One, Jose Berrios will pitch for the Twins and Jhoulys Chacin will go for the Padres. Berrios is 9-4 on the year with a 3.76 ERA. Chacin is 10-7 while posting a 4.22 ERA. Game One starts at 7:10 p.m. In the getaway game on Wednesday afternoon, Ervin Santana and Luis Perdomo will pitch for Minnesota and San Diego respectively. Santana is 11-7 with a 3.37 ERA and Perdomo is 5-5 with a 4.76 ERA. Game Two starts at 12:40 p.m. Let's start with the visiting Minnesota Twins. About a week and a half ago the Twins were buyers as they acquired Jaime Garcia from the Braves and Minnesota fans thought they would chase a wild card spot. Then, Minnesota gets swept by the Dodgers and loses the series to the Athletics while the Indians and Royals both had nine game winning streaks at one point. The Twins in a matter of ten days went from buyers to sellers as they traded away the newly acquired Jaime Garcia to New York and traded their former closer Brandon Kintzler to Washington. Miguel Sano is one of the hotter hitters right now even though they are struggling. He leads the club in home runs with 24 and runs batted in with 70. The hottest hitter though in the month of July is the part time shortstop, Adrianza. In July, he is 11-31 scoring four runs driving in six runs, and has a batting average of .355. Minnesota expects to get back speedster Byron Buxton on Tuesday in San Diego with Zach Granite will probably go to the bench to be a late game pinch hitter. Let's go over to the San Diego side. Even with the worse record, San Diego is doing better right now winning four in a row, winning the final two vs the Mets and the first two with the Pirates. Many people believed that Brad Hand would get traded, but many also believed that the Padres may have been "reaching too far" for top tier prospects. That may have been the case because obviously Preller liked Dodgers' Alex Verdugo or the Yankees' Gleybar Torres. It was a bad and a good move at the same time because obviously they don't get prospects back, but at the same time they have their closer for at least a couple more seasons. So, Andy Green rested Wil Myers on Saturday and Sunday with a team off day on Monday to clear his mind and get back at it on Tuesday. Even with the three days off in a row for Myers he leads the team in home runs with 20. The hottest player by far right now is outfielder Manuel Margot. In the month of July, Margot is 27-87 with eight RBI's, four home runs, and has a .310 batting average. In fact he was the hottest player on the National League winning the NL Player of the Week yesterday. San Diego just got back starting catcher Austin Hedges and infielder Yangervis Solarte who can play anywhere in the infield. Tune in tonight and tomorrow afternoon for the interleague series between the Padres and the Twins.

The Minnesota Twins traded for Jaime Garcia earlier in the month. Now Minnesota have traded him to New York for Dietrich Enns and Zach Littell. Jaime Garcia only had one start for the Twins and it was a win on Friday night in Oakland. Garcia went 6.2 innings, giving up eight hits, three earned runs, three walks, and struck out seven batters. Since the Twins traded Garcia to the Yankees and they also acquired Sonny Gray, now the Yankees have a solid rotation with Severino, Gray, Sabathia, Tanaka, and Garcia. One of the prospects Minnesota got back was lefty Deitrich Enns. This year in Triple A he went 1-1 with a 2.29 ERA in seven games and striking out 37. The other prospect Minnesota acquired was Zach Littell. In Double A Trenton, Littell was 5-0 with a 2.05 ERA in 44 innings pitched, and striking out 52 batters. When asked about the trade involving Jaime Garcia, Dozier stated that he thinks the season is not over. "I don't think we look at it as a change of course, unless something else crazy happens, obviously Garcia's a guy we were looking forward to helping us down the stretch, but for the most part this is the exact same team that was in first place for, whatever, two or three months, so we just have to go out and play." Brian is right even though Cleveland and Kansas Coty are hot right now. The Twins just have to go out and focus even more. Just go out and try to get a nice winning streak together to try to put a nice winning streak together to try to make a run for the second wild card spot.

Yesterday the Minnesota Twins finally got the trade done for Jaime Garcia. The Braves traded Jaime Garcia and catcher Anthony Recker to the Minnesota Twins for 19 year old right hander, Huascar Ynoa. The Braves got a 19-year old pitcher who they obviously liked and want him to be on the team once they are out of the rebuild stage. The Twins acquired Recker and of course Garcia. Anthony Recker is a catcher who has been in four organizations including Oakland, Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, and Atlanta. This year in the big leagues he is just 1-7 in six games. Recker would be a good backup catcher to Castro up in the show. Jaime Garcia was already rumored seriously last week for being traded to Minnesota, but that trade fell through because the Atlanta front office had a medical problem with the prospect that Minnesota was proposing them. Then, there were reports about some other teams getting in on Garcia, but yesterday the Braves finally liked the prospect Minnesota proposed, Huascar Ynoa, and they made the deal to give Garcia and Recker to Minnesota. Garcia on the year has pitched in 18 games, has a record of 4-7, and a 4.30 ERA in 113 innings pitched. Last Friday Garcia went seven innings, gave up seven hits, three earned runs, one walk, and struck out four. On the hitting side, he hit his first grand slam in his last game as a National League pitcher. So, as the Twins made this deal, the Kansas City Royals sent Travis Wood, Matt Strahm, and 18 year old infielder Esteury Ruiz to San Diego for pitchers Trevor Cahill, Ryan Buchter, and Brandon Maurer. This was very important for Minnesota to get a solid pitcher since the Royals just got three pitchers. After the loss to the Dodgers last night, they drop back even more in the division to 3.5 games after Cleveland and Kansas City won last night. I believe this Jaime Garcia trade can get the twins a win every five days and hopefully get the Twins a division win or at least the second wild card spot.

The Twins defeated the Detroit Tigers 6-5 on Saturday night at Target Field in the middle game of the three game set to even the series. It seemed like the Twins had the game locked up, but Justin Upton hit a three run home run in the top of the eighth inning to make it a 6-4 game. Then, Mikie Mahtook reached on an error by Miguel Sano making it a one run game at 6-5. Kinzter had to make an appearance starting in the eighth inning for a four out save. He retired the first batter he faced for the Twins to get off the field and go into the bottom half of the eighth. The first three Twins were retired and Kintzler went back out for the top of the ninth inning. Jose Iglesias hit a ball down the left field line and hustled to second base, but Eddie Rosario threw him out as Dozier put the tag on him. Both managers thought the ball was foul, but once Paul Moliter saw Iglesias was out, he stepped back into the dugout not going to challenge it. The next two batters were retired and the Twins won. Minnesota pitcher, Kyle Gibson, pitched a solid 7 1/3 innings, allowing five hits, 3 earned runs, 3 walks, and struck out five. For the rubber match of the series, Detroit's Matthew Boyd will face Minnesota's Mejia. Sunday's rubber game starts at 1:10 p.m. Cleveland beat Toronto in extras 2-1 and Kanasas City beat Chicago 7-2. Cleveland stays 1.5 games up on Minnesota and Kansas City.

There has been reports that the Minnesota Twins are close to acquiring pitcher Jaime Garcia from the Atlanta Braves. In 2017, Garcia is 3-7 with a 4.33 ERA, in 17 games. In his career, Garcia is 66-52 with a 3. 65 ERA in 1,002 IP. In Jaime Garcia's last start against the Arizona Diamondbacks, he pitched seven innings, allowing four hits, one earned run, gave up three walks, and struck out seven. Jon Paul Morosi reported on Twitter last night that the Twins have reached an agreement to acquire Garcia from the Braves. Then, this morning Mark Feinsand reported that this deal is not a done deal, and as of now the Braves are preparing for Garcia to start tonight against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

The Minnesota Twins started the series with the New York Yankees being 1.5 games back from Cleveland for first place in the American League Central. By the end of the series, Minnesota was only .5 games back. Cleveland lost the series to the San Fransisco Giants in San Fransisco while the Twins won the series in Minnesota over New York. Miguel Sano guided the Twins in the final game of the three game set hitting a three-run home run that was in the middle of a six run inning leading to a Twins victory 6-1. Cleveland will play Toronto in a three game series at Progressive Field over the weekend as the Twins are at home vs Detroit. Minnesota stays at home in a three game weekend series against the Detroit Tigers. This series comes at a good time for the Twins because Detroit just traded their slugger, J.D. Martinez, to the Arizona Diamondbacks for prospects. In Game 1 of the three game set, Anibal Sanchez will take the hill for the Tigers as All-Star Ervin Santana will pitch for Minnesota. For the second game, Detroit's Jordan Zimmermann will face Kyle Gibson before Matthew Boyd and Adalberto Mejia square off in the finale of the series on Sunday. The Twins have a couple hot hitters at the moment including second basemen Brian Dozier and All-Star Miguel Sano. Since the All-Star break, Dozier is 9-23, has 6 RBI, 2 HR, and has scored five times. Miguel Sano is 5-22, 4 RBI, 2 HR, and has scored five times since the break. Minnesota will look to gain ground on Cleveland and get into first place in the American League Central during the weekend.