Minnesota Twins post game: Offensive outburst carries Twins

The Minnesota Twins beat the New York Yankees in the 1st of 3 at Target Field by a score of 8-6 thanks to lots of bombas and a superb offensive showing.

Martin Perez would get the start against New Yorks C.C. Sabathia. Though Perez struggled, he did just enough to get things going for the Twins. It was a back and forth game that ultimately ended with rookie Lewis Thrope earning the win with Sabatha taking the loss. Although he gave us quite the scare in the 9th inning, Taylor Rogers earned his 15th save of the season.

Twin Takeaway – The good

The offense was back at it this evening as they added 5 bombas to their league-leading home run total. Mitch Garver led the way with 2 dingers while Miguel Sano, Jorge Polanco, and Nelson Cruz each had a blast of their own. With all the homers being solo shots, the Yankees were lucky to be in this one at all down the stretch. Polanco and Cruz went back-to-back in the first inning to put the Twins in front and though it was close, they wouldn’t look back.

All of this was possible thanks to a HUGE triple play in the first inning. After Perez walked the first two batters of the game, Edwin Encarnacion gifted the Twins a 5-4-3 triple play. It was the first Twins triple play of the year and came at the perfect moment as it catapulted the Twins to the series-opening victory.

Twin Takeaway – The not-so-good

Martin Perez struggled throughout his 4 innings pitched and couldn’t get an out in the 5th inning. With Mike Tauchman leading the inning off with a single, DJ Lemahieu would crank a 2-run blast to left cutting the lead to 7-5. After walking the next batter, Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, Tyler Duffey would be called upon to hold the lead for the Minnesota Twins. He did just that pitching a solid scoreless inning after surrendering a walk to Encarnacion.

A bit of a head-scratcher for me is why the Twins front office/coaching staff insists on using young starters in relief situations. I love the idea of sending a “failed” starter to the bullpen to see if they’re better suited in a relief situation. Though, to be honest, I’m not sure why guys like Lewis Thorpe are being brought out of the bullpen at this stage in their careers. Is our relief situation that dire? It’s quite possibly worse than many of us think.

The Twins look to keep things rolling against New York with Kyle Gibson facing off against the always dangerous Domingo German. Let’s see if Gibby can give the Minnesota Twins bats a bit of a break and quiet the Yankees offense.