Twins Beat Indians at Their Own Game…Again to Take Series

Bombas. Bullpen. Win. Repeat. The Minnesota Twins finished their series against the Cleveland Indians in similar fashion to how the first three games played out. Thanks to a Mitch Garver homerun and more brilliance from Tyler Clippard and the bullpen, the Twins sent Cleveland home with a 3-1 loss. The Twins improved to 7-2 on the season. Cleveland fell to 5-5, and dropped to 2.5 games behind the Twins in the AL Central.

MORE QUICK SCORING

The Twins wasted no time getting runs on the board. Max Kepler doubled to lead off the game, and scored on a Jorge Polanco single in the bottom of the first. Mitch Garver extended the lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the second inning with his first Bomba of the year.

Mitch Garver makes it 2-0 with a solo shot. #twins #indians #mlb #baseball pic.twitter.com/u3f1pb7DkQ

— Justin Groc (@jgroc) August 2, 2020

After Kepler doubled again in the bottom of the third, Nelson Cruz drove him in with an RBI single to give the Twins a 3-0 lead. That was all the scoring the Twins would need.

CLIPPARD IN CONTROL

Tyler Clippard opened for the Twins, something he did three times last year for the Indians. Clippard threw the first two innings and did not allow a baserunner. After Clippard departed, Devin Smeltzer followed with a scoreless third inning, but did give up a run in the fourth. The inning could have been bigger for Cleveland if not for an absolute missle launched by Eddie Rosario to second base to nab Francisco Lindor trying to stretch out an RBI single.

Eddie Rosario with a seed off the wall to nail Lindor at 2nd pic.twitter.com/aX0bVQcB2p

— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) August 2, 2020

After an absolutely bizarre delay in the fifth inning, Matt Wisler finished the fifth and cruised through the sixth. The Twins then went to the usual suspects to finish off the game. Tyler Duffey handled the seventh with ease. Trevor May clamped down the eighth, and Sergio Romo slammed the door to pick up the save in the ninth to pick up the save.

BAILEY TO IL: POPPEN RECALLED

The Twins placed Homer Bailey on the 10 day IL shortly before first pitch with right biceps tendinitis and recalled Sean Poppen. Bailey won his first start with the Twins, and was initially supposed to start today.

Reading a bit between the lines, seems like the #MNTwins initially tried to buy Homer Bailey an extra day by pushing back his scheduled start today and using an opener.

Suggests it's not a major injury, but that's just speculation for now. We'll get an update after the game.

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) August 2, 2020

ODORIZZI TO FACE HITTERS MONDAY

Jake Odorizzi continues to make progress toward rejoining the rotation after a back injury delayed his debut. Odorizzi made it through a bullpen session Thursday, and will face live hitters tomorrow according to Betsy Helfand.

Jake Odorizzi (back) threw a bullpen today at Target Field. He plans to face hitters for three to four innings likely on Monday in St. Paul and see how he feels after that.

— Betsy Helfand (@betsyhelfand) July 30, 2020

PIRATES COMING TO TOWN

The Twins welcome the Pittsburgh Pirates to Target Field tomorrow for the start of a home and home series. The first two games of the four game series will be played at Target Field. Veteran Derek Holland (0-0, 3.18 ERA) will pitch for Pittsburgh. As of now the Twins have not named a starter for tomorrow’s game, suggesting it may be another bullpen day.

Also, for the record, the Twins need to wear the baby blue uniforms EVERY SINGLE GAME.

Seth Toupal | Minnesota Sports Fan