Minnesota Twins: Powerful series win against the Athletics

Minnesota Twins: Afterthoughts. The thoughts and interesting stats from the previous games against the Oakland Athletics.

The Minnesota Twins won its third series in a row after taking two out of three games against the Oakland Athletics.

There was not shortage of runs or home runs for that matter as the Twins scored 21 runs in the three game series.

In the first game the Twins clubbed six home runs in the first game of the series, a Target Field record. Brian Dozier, Miguel Sano, Jason Castro, Byron Buxton, Dozier again and Joe Mauer combined for the record.

In the second game Kennys Vargas, tied a career high for RBIs in a game with five.

Unfortunately for the Twins, the team lost the third game of the series. Kyle Gibson pitched another clunker and was demoted to the minors almost immediately after the game.

Disregarding Gibson’s outing, the Twins were still in a position to win.

Let’s walk through the final at-bat, the most pivotal moment in the game.

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With two outs in the ninth inning and the bases loaded, the Twins are losing 8-5. Miguel Sano is due up.

Santiago Casilla, the A’s closer, threw Sano two fastballs high and inside, both were out of the strike zone.

At this point, a intuitive baseball fan might assume they’re going to pitch around Sano and unintentionally walk him.

The next pitch is another fastball down and away for ball three.

Now Sano might as well take the walk. Instead he swung and fouled off a fastball high and inside. The pitch looked like it would’ve been ball four.

Had he taken the pitch, a run would have walked in. Vargas would have batted with the bases loaded and the score 8-6.

The next pitch Sano got a very hittable fastball, which he fouled off.

The count now stand at 3-2. Sano has seen all fastballs so far. A smart pitcher would throw a breaking ball out of the zone to strike him out. Obviously, Casilla doesn’t want to walk Sano and prolong the inning. Plus he’s seen nothing but fastballs.

Sano had to have been anticipating another fastball as he check swung at a curve out of the zone.

In conclusion, it was an at-bat that was pitched perfectly by Casilla. For Sano, it was his fourth strikeout of the game.

Next: Minnesota Twins: Sano Leads Charge in Rain Shortened Sweep of Royals

Furthermore, the Twins move on and try to win its fourth series in a row against the Boston Red Sox.