Minnesota Twins post game report: Berrios thrives, Twins fall

The Minnesota Twins kicked off a 3 game set against the defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox at home on Monday evening.

Jose Berrios got the start for the Minnesota Twins as they faced Red Sox starter and 2016 AL Cy-Young award winner Rick Porcello. The game as many expected, turned out to be an outstanding pitchers duel and one that didn’t feature a whole lot of offense. Porcello got the best of Berrios as Boston crept past the Twins in a 2-0 game.

Twin Takeaway – The good

Minnesota Twins starter Jose Berrios was outstanding. Giving up 5 hits through 8 innings pitched, Berrios only allowed 1 earned-run on the evening. The Minnesota ace also tallied an outstanding 10 strikeouts in the game while lowering his ERA to 2.86. Berrios has been absolutely incredible all season long and is well on his way to securing a spot in this years MLB All-Star Game in Cleveland. That would be his second total and second consecutive appearance at the “Midsummer Classic”.

With the 8 innings pitched and 10 strikeouts, Berrios was able to tie his previous season highs in both of those categories. Again, proving solid consistency over the past couple years which is something that has been lacking from Twins starters for quite some time. Another exciting statistic is that Berrios threw 83 strikes on 109 pitches with no walks, showing superb feel for and command of the zone.

Twin Takeaway – The not-so-good

Though the bats could have been much better, especially after a game in which they left over 30 runners on base, the offense wasn’t necessarily bad. The one statistic that stands out to me the most is the Team RISP (team with runners in scoring position). Collectively the Minnesota Twins offense was 0-5 with RISP and weren’t helped by Jonathan Schoop being thrown out on a Nelson Cruz grounder in the bottom of the 8th.

The Twinkies offense has been stellar all season, there’s no denying that. Though, it would have been nice to see someone step up the past couple games and get the big hit in two contests that could’ve easily been Ws in the win column. That being said, kudos to Porcello for dominating like he did. You feel bad for Berrios but move on and hope he pitches that well in his next outing.

Boston is back at Target Field tomorrow for game 2 in the series starting at 7:10 central. David Price gets the start for the Red Sox as Michael “Big Mike” Pineda will start on the bump for the Twins. It should be another fantastic game, let’s hope the Twins come out on top this time.