Bizarre Ninth Gives The Minnesota Twins A Victory

It was supposed to be the Yu Darvish and Phil Hughes showcase. Two of the best arms in the league going head to head, but something a little lower than the head prevented us from seeing that. Darvish was scratched from the start with neck stiffness.

Hughes still did his thing though going seven innings on Tuesday. Hughes again didn’t walk a batter and hasn’t walked a batter now in 44.2 innings or six starts or 175 batters. Anyway that you cut it, it’s really, really good. Hughes did give up three runs in the game and those three runs would hold up as a lead until the ninth inning, we’ll get to that in a little bit.

With Darvish being scratched, the Rangers obviously needed a new starter. That starter was none other than former Minnesota Twins starter Scott Baker. Baker went six innings and gave up two runs: one a moonshot solo home run off the bat of Oswaldo Arcia and a Joe Mauer RBI double.

Let’s jump ahead to the ninth inning where the Rangers lead 3-2. Glen Perkins came into the game for the Twins and gave up a leadoff triple, but worked around it to not allow any insurance runs for Texas. The bottom of the inning is where it got really interesting.

With one out, Oswaldo Arcia hit a ball that was smoked and would have been a home run in a whole lot of ballparks across the majors, but it hit high off the wall very tall part of the wall in centerfield. Arcia got a double out of that. After a Willingham strikeout, Eduardo Nunez lined a single to right that scored Arcia and tied the ballgame up. Nunez advanced to second on the throw home.

Kurt Suzuki stepped in next and hit a groundball to third baseman Adrian Beltre that should have ended the ballgame with a strong, typical throw to first, but Beltre didn’t throw the ball. Nunez was coming to third and Beltre tried to tag him, but Nunez avoided the tag by possibly running out of the baseline, but nevertheless Nunez was safe.

Eduardo Escobar was intentionally walked to load the bases and get Danny Santana up to the plate. Santana hit a dribbler back to pitcher Joakim Soria who bobbled the ball and everyone advanced giving the Twins the win via the error. It was a weird way to end a game, but the Twins would take anything to get off the losing streak that they were on.

Casey Fien pitched an inning in the game between Hughes and Perkins.

Arcia, Mauer and Nunez all had an RBI in the game. Dozier, Mauer and Arcia all hit doubles in the game. Arcia’s homer was the only home run of the ballgame.