The Minnesota Twins fell 7-5 to the Houston Astros on Tuesday night at Target Field, as starter Hector Santiago lost his first home start since joining the club at the August 1 trade deadline.
The Twins first trailed 2-0, then 2-1, then led 4-2 before being outscored 5-1 over the final three innings on a stuffy, steamy night where the ball was flying out of the ballpark. Four players had home runs in the game — including just one from the Astros (Carlos Correa’s 16th), as well as ones off the bats of Brian Dozier (No. 23), Robbie Grossman (No. 7) and Miguel Sano (No. 19).
All four home runs in the game came against the opposing team’s starter.
Here’s what we saw on Tuesday night:
Santiago Sent Us
Santiago struggled a bit in the first inning, as he got George Springer to strike out on a 91-mph sinker before allowing an Alex Bregman double, a Jose Altuve single — one of four hits on the night — and the Correa home run. Santiago was absolutely getting tattooed — no pun intended — in the process.
However it’s probably pretty symbolic of a veteran starter that Santiago settled down after that point, as following the Correa homer the left-hander set down 13 of 14 batters before Springer led off the sixth by whistling a 1-0 pitch into the right field corner for a double.
“I think I settled in from the first pitch,” Santiago said. “I made one mistake (the Correa home run). When I’ve faced him in the past, he hasn’t really turned that pitch around. Tonight he did. After that, I had some quick innings. A lot of innings with short pitch counts. I had a low pitch count throughout the whole game, but I got into a little jam in the sixth and couldn’t get out of it.”
One other thing that might go unnoticed is that Santiago has seen plenty of these Astros, especially since he’s coming over from another AL West club in the Angels. This was just his second appearance against them this season, but the 11th of his career. On the lighter side, Santiago broke a pair of bats in the fourth inning and got such a wicked swing and miss from DH Tyler White in the second that he threw his bat clear into the back row of the box seats over the Astros dugout.
Things unraveled for Santiago in the sixth however, as he was chased after allowing a double, walk, single and a single plus an error which resulted in Houston taking a 5-4 lead before all was said and done.
Fiers Throws Anything But Fire
Fiers was anywhere from 86-91 mph with his fastball in the first inning and for much of the night, but he spotted it well and did a good job adding and subtracting to it to compliment his offspeed pitches. His curveball had lots of movement on the night, and was one of many things that gave Eddie Rosario fits.
Speaking of….
Rough Night for Rosario…..At Least Offensively
In four plate appearances on the night, Rosario saw a solid 23 pitches — but struck out in all four on the way to the Golden Sombrero. Rosario entered play Tuesday having struck out three times in a game on six occasions and four times in a game once over his career, but the key difference there was that he needed seven plate appearances to complete that feat the first time, back on April 24 of this season against the Nationals — against Stephen Strasburg.
It wasn’t all bad for Rosario on Tuesday night however, as he showed off his arm on a first inning throw to nab Bregman at the plate. Considering Correa homered as the next batter, it sure seemed bit at the time.
Rosario also swung and missed on a wild pitch — who else but him? — which resulted in Trevor Plouffe taking second base with nobody out in the sixth inning. Plouffe was ultimately thrown out at the plate, as Jorge Polanco singled into center — the only hit for the Twins with runners in scoring position all night, manager Paul Molitor reckoned — but Astros centerfielder Jake Marisnick came up with an on-target, on-time throw to preserve Houston’s 5-4 lead.
More on the wild swing….I overheard an NL scout on Rosario during the last homestand: “He’s so talented, but he just swings at everything!” That was never more evident than on Tuesday night, as Molitor seemed to simultaneously smile and grimace when asked if Rosario was expanding the zone all evening.
Going Back, Back…..OK, Just Twice
Grossman and Dozier’s home runs were back-to-back in the fifth inning, as combined they staked the Twins and Santiago to a 4-2 lead. It marked the 10th time this season the Twins had gone back-to-back, and first since July 10 (Eduardo Escobar and Dozier).
Can Anyone Get Altuve Out?
Mr. Altuve showed why he’s hitting over .360, not only with the four hits, but including a pair of hits that came on 0-2 pitches. The first time came in the sixth, following the Springer double and preceding a Correa smash off the right field fence. In that sequence, Altuve ultimately came around for the fifth run to give Houston a 5-4 lead. The next time around Altuve fell behind 0-2 to Twins reliever Michael Tonkin, only to serve a single into center to score Tony Kemp with the Astros’ sixth run of the night. For good measure, Altuve stole a base earlier in the game as well. He’s hitting an ungodly .361/.427/.570 with 26 stolen bases this season. As Molitor alluded to during pregame availability, he’s in the MVP discussion for sure.
Feliz Throws Gas, But Didn’t Locate
It was evident a few times on the monitor that Astros right-handed reliever Michael Feliz — who threw 40 pitches in 1.2 innings of relief immediately following Fiers — was missing his spots by wide margins, but never more than the 0-2 pitch he threw to Max Kepler which the German outfielder drilled back up the box for a clean single to end the reliever’s night.
Infield In
Both teams strangely played the infield in during the fourth inning. With Altuve at third and Marwin Gonzalez up with one out, the Twins brought the infield in. Altuve didn’t score, but it wasn’t really because of the defensive alignment, as Gonzalez grounded to Plouffe at third before Evan Gattis fanned on a full count screwball. In the bottom half, the Twins were also held scoreless after Kepler singled, took second on a wild pitch and then third on a passed ball. That drew the infield in with one out and runners on the corners after Plouffe walked, but Rosario struck out and Jorge Polanco flew to Kemp in left to end the threat. Perhaps a bit humorously and no doubt with some hindsight mixed in, nine runs were scored in the game after both teams played the infield in during the fourth frame.
Sano Homers….Then Sees a Steady Diet of Breakers
Sano homered on the first pitch of the second inning — a 424-foot blast that came off the bat at 107 mph via Statcast — and then saw a steady diet of breaking balls the rest of the way. Fiers started both Kepler and Sano with curveballs in the fourth inning, but took it a step further with Sano. Miguel saw four straight curves in a row, before Fiers muscled up a 93 mph fastball that Sano swung through for the first out of the inning. Later on, after Kepler’s 0-2 single chased Feliz, Sano faced former Twin Pat Neshek, who threw three sliders before ultimately getting a popout on the last one.
Possibly Interesting Boshers Usage?
Buddy Boshers came on to throw the eighth and ninth innings for the Twins, and got back on track for the most part by allowing just one earned run over his two frames with a pair of strikeouts. It’s been a bit of a struggle for him since returning, as his ERA has swollen up to 3.86 after spending a large portion of his MLB time under 2.00. Boshers’ usage was a little intriguing, however, as he faced seven batters total. The first four all batted right-handed — including the switch-hitting Gonzalez — and six of the seven batters total came from that side. Boshers has been tough on big league lefties this year (.541 OPS against) but righties have had a bit easier of a time (.723), though Molitor revealed after the game that his bullpen was a bit shorthanded. As a result, he had to go to Tonkin earlier than he’d have liked — Santiago threw just 83 pitches total — and was likely forced to use guys in roles he typically wouldn’t have preferred to.
Ultimately it goes to show that managers will rarely, if ever, tip their hands before the game about which relievers are or are not available. If a key lefty specialist isn’t available to face Kepler late (hypothetically), there’s no benefit in the opposing manager making that information known publicly, and so on. Right?
