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It seemed as though the Twins were sailing, on their way to their first series sweep since late May. They had a 4-1 lead entering the bottom of the ninth, with freshly acquired Sam Dyson coming onto the mound for what appeared was going to be an easy save against one of the worst hitting teams in the major leagues. That wasn’t the case, and when all was said and done, it was the Marlins who walked away with the victory.Box Score Pineda: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 72.5% strikes (58 of 80 pitches) Home Runs: Kepler (30) Multi-Hit Games: Kepler (2 for 6, HR), Buxton (2 for 5) WPA of +0.1: Buxton .249, Pineda .175, Harper .123, WPA of -0.1: Dyson -.448, -.254, Max Kepler gave the Twins a quick 1-0 lead, blasting the fourth pitch of the game over the fence in right field. It was already Kepler’s 30th home run of the season, 10 more than his previous career high he set last year. The Marlins were able to get that run back thanks to an RBI-triple from Miami outfielder Harold Ramirez. Byron Buxton gave it his best effort tracking the ball down in the right-centerfield gap, but it was just out of his reach. Michael Pineda did do a good job of preventing the Marlins from adding any more runs, as he got Cesar Puello to strike out, followed by an intentional walk of Bryan Holaday, to bring up Marlins pitcher Jordan Yamamoto, who Pineda got to ground out to end the inning. The Twins used some clever managing to help them put up a crooked inning in the top of the fourth. Eddie Rosario led off the inning with a strikeout, before Miguel Sano lined a double to left-field. That was followed by a Jason Castro strikeout and an Ehrie Adrianza hit-by-pitch. Here is where the clever move by Rocco Baldelli came into play. With two-outs and two runners on base, and the pitcher’s spot on deck, this was a prime situation for the Marlins to intentionally walk Byron Buxton. However, Baldelli sent Mitch Garver into the on-deck circle to signify that he was going to hit for Michale Pineda, even though it was only the fourth inning. The strategy worked, as the Marlins decided to pitch to Buxton, who promptly pulled a double that caught the chalk down the third base line, bringing both Sano and Adrianza around to score. Some great base running by Luis Arraez helped the Twins extend their lead in the top of the fifth. After reaching base with a one-out single, Arraez advanced to third on some gutsy base running after Jorge Polanco lined a hit to left field. Arraez then came in to score the Twins' fourth run of the game on a sac-fly from Eddie Rosario. Michael Pineda finished off yet another quality start today, after going six-innings and giving up just the one run in the second. Dating back to the beginning of May, Pineda has a 3.48 ERA across 88 innings pitched. Over that time he has 10 quality starts, and has gone at least five innings while allowing three ER or less in 14 of those 15 starts. Things were going as planned for the Twins through the later innings. Both Tyler Duffey and Sergio Romo worked scoreless innings, keeping the Twins lead of 4-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth. With Taylor Rogers having pitched in each of the last two ballgames, Rocco Baldelli was trying to avoid using him for the third day in a row to pick up the save. Instead, he chose to go with brand new Minnesota Twin, Sam Dyson, who had just arrived in at the ballpark about an hour or so after the game had started. Dyson came in, and proceeded to go walk, single, double, walk. Baldelli quickly got Rogers up and loose. He had to come in and protect what was now a two-run lead, with the bases loaded and nobody out. After Neil Walker singled up the middle to tie the game, Rogers was in even deeper trouble. However, Rogers did exactly what a relief ace is supposed to do and struck out the side to send the game to extra innings. The Twins hitters went dead quiet in extra innings, as not a single batter reached base in the 10th, 11th or 12th innings. Max Kepler put up a great 14 pitch at-bat in the 12th, and hit a deep drive into corner in right, but it was not enough, as it was caught on the warning track. This inability to get some big hits in extra innings came back to bite them, as Harold Ramirez connected on a Cody Stashak fastball to lead off the bottom of 12th and just like that the game was over. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Next Three Games Fri vs KC, 7:10 pm CT (Sparkman-Perez) Sat vs KC, 6:10 pm CT (Duffey-Gibson) Sun vs KC, 1:10 pm CT (Keller-Odorizzi) Last Game Twins Game Recap (7/31): Berrios Throws Gem as Bombas Fly Click here to view the article

After taking three of four over the weekend in Chicago, the Minnesota Twins were looking to keep their good road trip going as the made the rare trip down to South Beach to play the Miami Marlins. Jake Odorizzi took the mound and was looking to bounce back after his terrible start last time out against the New York Yankees. He did just that, and lead the Twins to a 2-1 victory in game one of the series.Box Score Odorizzi: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 66.0% strikes (68 of 103 pitches) Home Runs: Buxton (10) Multi-Hit Games: None WPA of +0.1: Odorizzi .200, Rogers .176, Duffey .141, Romo .129, Sano .114 WPA of -0.1: None There wasn’t a lot of action through the first couple innings of the game. Neither team was able to reach base during the first inning, and the first baserunner of the game was Miguel Sano who drew a one-out walk. He wouldn’t make it far, however, as he was thrown out on an inning-ending strike him out, thrown him out double play. The bottom of the second was going smoothly for Jake Odorizzi until Curtis Granderson hit a line drive into the left-centerfield gap. It appeared as though Eddie Rosario would have a play throw Granderson out at second, but he inexplicable misplayed the ball, allowing it to get past him and Granderson to advance to third on the error. Odorizzi was able to pick up Rosario by getting Harold Ramirez to fly out to end the inning. Byron Buxton got the scoring going in the top of the third when he hit a towering flyball over the fence in left-centerfield to give the Twins an early 1-0 lead. The Twins were able to add to their lead in the top of the fourth inning. Jorge Polanco started the inning with a leadoff walk, and looked for a second like the Twins might not be able to turn that walk into a run. Mitch Garver followed Polanco’s walk with a strikeout, and Edie Rosario proceeded to ground into a force out. Then on a 2-1 count, Miguel Sano drilled a double out to centerfield, bringing Rosario around to score from first. The bottom of the fourth was sailing along for Jake Odorizzi, like the rest of the game had up until that point. He got each of the first two hitters to flyout, before Starlin Castro stepped to the plate and roped a two-out single to the opposite field, setting the table for Curtis Granderson who pulled a double down the line that got all the way to the wall. The relay from Kepler to Arraez to Garver was a hair late and a hair offline, allowing Castro to slide in safely, cutting the Twins lead down to one. Jake Odorizzi was cruising along through five innings and into the sixth, and it appeared as though he was going complete six innings for the first time since June 15. However, that wasn’t meant to be, as with two outs in the sixth he walked Neil Walker, ending his night. Tyler Duffey came in and shut the door in the sixth by striking out Starlin Castro. He then followed that up with a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh inning. Sergio Romo made his Twins debut in the bottom of the eighth against the team that just traded him away. Romo got both Cesar Puello and Miguel Rojas to flyout to begin the inning before he hit Brian Anderson on the first pitch of the plate appearance. Anderson was able to advance to second on a stolen base during the next at-bat but didn’t go any further as Romo ended the inning by getting Martin Prado to strikeout on a check swing that he couldn’t quite hold up on. The often animated Romo showed that he was pumped up to pitch for a competitive ball club again. After a much-needed week off, Taylor Rogers looked fresh in the ninth inning, going 1-2-3 to complete his 16th save of the season. With the Indians losing to Justin Verlander and the Houston Astros tonight, the Twins lead is back up to three games. During the game, it was announced that the Cleveland Indians had traded away Trevor Bauer as part of a three-team trade with the Cincinnati Reds and San Diego Padres. In return they received outfielders Yasiel Puig and Franmil Reyes. If you are unfamiliar with Reyes, he is one of the bright young stars in the game. In 185 career games, Reyes has already hit 43 home runs and has a wRC+ of 122. At just 24 years of age, Reyes might be a nemesis for the Twins in the years to come. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Next Three Games Wed at MIA, 6:10 pm CT (Berrios-Alcantara) Thu at MIA, 11:10 am CT (Pineda-Yamamoto) Fri vs KC, 7:10 pm CT (Sparkman-Perez) Last Game Twins Game Recap (7/28): Bats Bounce Back Behind Gibson’s Strong Outing Click here to view the article