The Minnesota Twins were able to outlast the Kansas City Royals, but that paled in comparison to a potentially serious injury to their star rookie.
The Minnesota Twins had a couple of tune-ups before the end of the regular season and as they looked to sand the edges in their final two games with the Kansas City Royals, their worst-case scenario came to fruition.
As the Twins were tied with the Royals in the seventh inning, a pop up hovered around the pitcher’s mound. Both Luis Arraez and Willians Astudillo went for the ball and collided on the mound. While Astudillo turned out fine, Arraez wasn’t so lucky, suffering what WCCO Radio’s Cory Provus reported as a right ankle sprain.
After being down for several minutes, Arraez was taken off on a cart with tears in his eyes as his rookie season has potentially come to a close. The 22-year old had a rookie of the year caliber season with the Twins, hitting .339 with four home runs and 28 RBI in 91 games after being called up in mid-May.
With Arraez out of the picture, the Twins will likely have to rely on Jonathan Schoop and Ehire Adrianza to step up in the postseason and that’s assuming that Adrianza has recovered from his rib injury that has kept him on the bench recently.
As for the actual game, the Twins were able to pick up their 101st victory of the season on Saturday thanks in large part to their bullpen. Although Cody Stashak allowed a monster home run to Jorge Soler in the bottom of the first and Tyler Duffey saw his scoreless streak end at 23 2/3 innings, the Twins ‘pen was pretty good holding the Royals to three runs on seven hits.
At the plate, Nelson Cruz would go 2-for-4 including his 42nd home run of the season, which would put the Twins ahead in the top of the eighth inning. Mitch Garver, Astudillo, and Schoop would also have great days with two hits a piece in the 4-3 victory.
Despite getting the win, all eyes will be peeled for an official diagnosis on Arraez in the coming days. There’s a very good chance that the Twins will put out another bench lineup in Sunday’s regular-season finale with the Royals, but Martin Perez (10-7, 5.13 ERA) will get the start opposite Jorge Lopez (4-9, 6.35 ERA) for a 2:15 p.m. CT first pitch.