Minnesota Twins: Michael Pineda outduels Lucas Giolito as Twins take opener in Chicago
By Chris Schad
The Minnesota Twins avenged their shutout loss at Target Field as they took the opening game of a three-game series in Chicago on Tuesday night.
The Minnesota Twins headed into Chicago on Tuesday to open a three-game series with the Chicago White Sox and potentially create some breathing room in the American League Central standings. Although the day began with bad news for Byron Buxton‘s shoulder injury, the Twins were able to keep their focus and pick up a 3-1 victory at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The big story coming into the game was the Twins’ rematch with Lucas Giolito. The White Sox ace dominated the Twins in their previous meeting on Aug. 21, when he threw a complete-game, three-hit shutout that included 12 strikeouts at Target Field. As is the case with most divison rivals, the Twins needed a short memory and that’s exactly what they did.
Minnesota would get their scoring started in the second inning against Giolito when Marwin Gonzalez launched his 15th home run of the season. Jonathan Schoop would follow up with his 19th bomb of the year later in the inning to give the Twins a 2-0 lead in the early going.
While Giolito would spot the Twins a couple of runs, starter Michael Pineda would do his best not to give them back to the White Sox. Although it wasn’t an efficient outing for the big right-hander, Pineda managed the Chicago lineup well, going five innings with his only blemish being Tim Anderson‘s 14th home run of the season.
Pineda would also mix in eight strikeouts as the Twins would take a 2-1 lead going into the eighth inning. In that frame, the Twins would get a huge insurance run when Eddie Rosario delivered an RBI single that scored Jorge Polanco to give the Twins a 3-1 lead.
The Twins’ bullpen would take over from that point as Sergio Romo would strike out the side in the bottom of the eighth and Taylor Rogers would come in for his 21st save of the year to preserve a Twins victory.
dark. Next. 5 Twins prospects that can impact September
The Twins would keep pace with the Cleveland Indians in the divisional race as they defeated the Tigers on Tuesday by a score of 10-1. The Twins will look to pick up another crucial win down the stretch as they send Jake Odorizzi (13-6, 3.57 ERA) against Ross Detwiler (2-3, 5.51 ERA) in the second game of the series at 7:10 p.m. CT.