Nelson Cruz lifts Minnesota Twins to series win over Tampa Bay

The Minnesota Twins welcomed a clutch 2-out base clearing double from slugger Nelson Cruz to secure the 6-4 win.

Jake Odorizzi would get the start for the Minnesota Twins facing off against Tampa Bay Rays starter Charlie Morton. With an injury-plagued Twins line-up, an ankle injury to All-Star candidate Eddie Rosario is the last thing Twins fans were hoping to see. There was an encouraging sign in seeing Max Kepler enter the game late as a defensive substitution.

Twin Takeaway – The good

After Eddie Rosario made his case for All-Star consideration yesterday, today that performance came from DH Nelson Cruz. Leading all hitters in tonight’s contest, Cruz was 3 for 4 with a run scored and 3 RBIs. No hit was bigger than his base clearing double with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th to give the Twins the 6-4 lead.

The other impressive Twins performance came from young middle-infielder Luis Arraez. It’s no secret I’ve been extremely high on the budding slugger from day one and he proved why tonight. Going 2 for 3 at the plate with 2 runs scored and a walk, Arraez raised his average on the season to .452. The kid can flat-out hit. Also playing some outfield tonight, if Luis keeps stroking the ball as well as he is, it’ll be tough to keep him off the field.

Twin Takeaway – The bad

With the Minnesota Twins depth already quite thin, it was tough to see fan-favorite Eddie Rosario go down with an ankle injury in the bottom of the 3rd. Rounding 1st-base, Eddie seemed to stumble while twisting his left ankle. Though being called an ankle sprain, let’s hope for the best for our star left-fielder.

The Minnesota Twins need your help in getting some solid representation at this year’s contest in Cleveland. Miraculously, Aaron Judge is ahead of Eddie in voting with only 25 games played and an average around .260. Keep on voting to get some of your favorite players to the Midsummer Classic that actually deserve the honor.