Minnesota Twins postgame report: Lucas Giolito shuts down Twins to take series

Lucas Giolito tosses a gem against the Twins

If there’s such thing as a dad joke in baseball, one of them would be that the Twins should have used some of their runs from last night this afternoon. Less than 24 hours after putting up 14 runs against the White Sox, the Twins ran into the right arm of Giolito, who silenced the Twins bats by allowing just three hits.

Giolito’s starts against the Twins coming in were on both ends of the spectrum. In his first start on June 28, the right-hander looked dominant in five shutout innings allowing just one hit and striking out four before a rain delay took him out of the game. On July 25, the Twins tagged Giolito for seven runs in five innings, which begged the question of which version were the Twins going to get.

The answer was the previous version and this time Mother Nature wasn’t there to save the Twins lineup. The Twins got a single from Jorge Polanco early, but things were snuffed out as Giolito set down the next nine batters until a Nelson Cruz single in the fourth inning.

Giolito would get out of that inning unscathed and the Twins lineup weakened when Eddie Rosario was removed from the game after the fifth inning due to hamstring tightness. Giolito would sit down the next 12 batters after the Cruz single in the fourth and even though he allowed a double to Jonathan Schoop in the eighth, the Twins went punchless into the afternoon.

In the end, Giolito put forth a true ace performance with a complete game shutout allowing three hits, no walks and racking up 12 strikeouts. It was a performance that the Twins currently wish they could get from their own pitching staff.