Twins

Jake Cave Homers in His Major League Debut, but Twins Mistakes Add Up in 5-4 Loss to Brewers

Photo credit: Brad Rempel, USA TODAY Sports

Forget, for a second, the two wild pitches Fernando Romero threw and the home run he gave up to Jesus Aguilar. Pay no mind to Logan Morrison getting picked off at second after leading off the sixth inning with a double. Don’t worry about the Minnesota Twins, collectively, going 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position in Saturday’s 5-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Because Jake Cave, the player the Twins received in a trade with the New York Yankees in mid-March, beat out a double-play, stole a base and hit a home run in his major league debut.

“It felt really good,” he said. “I just wanted to go out there and compete today. To be able to get the barrel on the baseball like that, it’s cool. It’s everything I thought it would be.”

But Aaron Hicks, who the Twins dealt to New York for John Ryan Murphy, became the only player in Yankee history other than Micky Mantle to hit two inside-the-park home runs in one season earlier in the day, you say.

Allow me counter with this:

“God, I had like eight or nine” people at the game, Cave said. “And apparently they’re blowing up on social media because they’re going crazy, so I have to check that out.”

Cave, who is from Hampton, Va., found out about the call-up at midnight, called his dad around 5:00 am this morning and was on a 6:30 am flight to Minneapolis. His family and friends just made it to see his debut.

“Everybody was in Virginia just about,” said Cave, when asked where his family was this morning. “I think they made it just at game time apparently. It was pretty cool to have my mom and dad and everybody here.

“I didn’t know if I was going to play. I kind of had to wait around today until a move was made,” said Cave, who joined the 40-man roster when Joe Mauer was placed on the 10-day disabled list. “Honestly, I came to the park thinking if anything, I might come in later in the game. But to be able to start the game, play center field and contribute, that was a big surprise and that was awesome.”

Instead Cave was pinch-hit for in the ninth by Mitch Garver, who was one of Josh Hader’s six strikeout victims on Saturday. Hader had faced 90 batters this season, and struck out 52 of them coming into the game.

“It’s hard not to be,” said manager Paul Molitor when asked if he was impressed by Hader. “We’ve seen him a little bit in the past and obviously know that his strikeout ratio is getting a lot of attention.”

Molitor also expressed disdain for the small mistakes that added up in the Twins’ loss, which dropped them to 18-23 on the season.

“Mistakes when you’re a little bit short-handed and trying to find a way to hold your own and win your fair share of games, you’ve got to make sure you’re doing the little things in the game and when you don’t they’re magnified,” said Molitor. “They cost you opportunities at various times whether it’s defensively or running the bases, whatever it might be.”

But, if just for today, enjoy a small victory. Jake Cave, a sixth-rounder out of Hampton, Va., who arrived in a trade involving Luis Gil, became the 11th player in Twins history — and first since Eddie Rosario in 2015 — to homer in his major league debut.

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