Minnesota Twins ace Ervin Santana was stellar, yet again, on Memorial Day. The bullpen, on the other hand, was historically bad.
The Minnesota Twins took on the Houston Astros on Monday in what was a wild Memorial Day showdown. Twins starter Ervin Santana had yet another great start, putting the Twins in position to win. The bullpen, however, had a meltdown of epic proportions.
Santana’s day went well, just as his whole season has gone. He put together seven strong innings and gave up only two runs (one earned) while striking out six Astros batters. Santana’s earned run average dipped down to 1.75 after the start, which leads all of Major League Baseball.
The Twins offense looked good during the game. Home runs from Miguel Sano and Robbie Grossman helped in the Twins putting up eight runs. Seven of those runs came in the fifth inning. What looked like a surefire Twins win, however, took an ugly turn in the eighth inning.
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The Most Unlikely Comeback
The Twins bullpen completely imploded in the game, after the Astros scored an astounding eleven runs in the eighth. Three pitchers combined to record just three outs and eleven earned runs during the eighth inning. Ryan Pressly recorded just one out and gave up five earned runs.
Craig Breslow came in to relieve Pressly and was credited with the loss after giving up three earned runs of his own in his 0.1 inning of work. Matt Belisle gave up three more runs before recording the final out of the inning. While the inning was historically bad, it is nothing compared to the odds the Astros were up against.
Since their formation in 1962, the Houston Astros had a record of 0-659 when heading into the eighth inning trailing by six or more runs. That 659-game losing steak in that situation came to a rousing end for the Astros on Memorial Day, further making this loss harder to swallow.
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Even though Santana had a great start, the Twins blew it with the bullpen. With such an incredible collapse, the club can only hope the bullpen can rebound and be effective again. If not, things could start to unravel quickly. Hopefully, this is not a sign of things to come.