Twins

Twins Save Best for Last in Come-From-Behind Win over White Sox

Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

The Minnesota Twins made the most of limited chances Sunday afternoon, somehow turning only five hits and three walks into five runs in a 5-3 win over the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.

BOX SCORE

The scored neither early nor often on Sunday, but did just enough to eke out a win, and a 3-1 series triumph over the White Sox, who have sputtered out of the gates to a 9-23 start, including just 3-13 in front of their home fans.

Here’s what we saw from our vantage point:

Kyle Gibson was again quite good

The White Sox got to Gibson in the third with a double, bunt and wild pitch. They struck again in the sixth with a double, walk and a sac fly to right, and one more time in the seventh with a single, bunt and a single to right. Ultimately, though, it was a good day of work for Gibson, who pitched into the seventh before Zach Duke allowed the final run to come across. That sealed the day for Gibson with three earned runs on four hits with eight strikeouts and two walks.

All told, Gibson threw 65 of his 102 pitches in the zone, and pushed his ERA down to 3.49 for the season. He started a respectable 17 of 27 batters with first-pitch strikes, and even more encouragingly induced 15 swinging strikes on the afternoon.

“It’s all about execution and getting ahead of guys,” Gibson said. “They showed early they were going to be aggressive. Talked to Bobby before the game, ‘We’ll see how aggressive these guys are and that will kind of dictate what we’re going to do.’ We had a pretty good plan coming in and Bobby (Wilson) did a good job making adjustments when we needed to and did a good job back there.”

According to Brooks Baseball, seven of those swinging strikes came on 25 sliders (28 percent), five came on the two-seam fastball (11.6 percent) and three came on the changeup (42.9 percent). He was bringing the heat in this one too, hitting 96.2 mph on the gun with the two-seamer (93.8 average) and 95.8 on the four-seamer (94 average).

When the bullpen is lined up properly, things typically are positive for the Twins

If the Twins have a lead late, they can line up guys like Trevor Hildenberger, Ryan Pressly, Zach Duke, Addison Reed and Fernando Rodney, and with all of them pitching fairly well, it allows manager Paul Molitor to mix and match to keep guys fresh and to also play the matchups.

Duke allowed an inherited runner to score, but struck out the other batter he faced and moved his ERA to 3.86 on the season. In fact, his is the highest of everyone who pitched in the game, as Duke, Reed (3.06) and Rodney (3.86) combined for 2.1 innings, one hit and four strikeouts.

As we’ve said before: this isn’t a bullpen that’ll make you forget about the Yankees, but it’s pretty darn good when things line up properly.

It took awhile, but the Twins finally got to James Shields

Shields set down the first 16 batters he faced before Ehire Adrianza reached on a walk in the sixth. He was stranded at second base by a Joe Mauer popup, but the Twins broke through in the seventh.

Brian Dozier led off the frame with a walk, and moved to third on Eduardo Escobar’s single. He came across on an Eddie Rosario single and moved to third on Robbie Grossman’s fly out to center. With Logan Morrison coming up and runners on the corners, Rick Renteria went to his bullpen to get lefty Luis Avilan. Morrison fell into an 0-2 hole, took a ball and then poked a two-run double to right to give the Twins their first lead of the day, 3-2.

“(It was a) changeup that actually cut,” Morrison said of the Avilan pitch. “But yeah, it looks exactly like his heater. (I) just grinded (the at-bat) out, and was able to get in the air deep enough so it worked out.”

Like most young teams, the White Sox are a mistake-prone bunch

The Twins took the lead in the eighth when Mauer walked and Dozier followed with a grounder to short. Tim Anderson’s flip from short wasn’t handled at second base, and Mauer moved over to third before scoring on Max Kepler’s grounder.

Dan Gladden of the Twins Radio Network said that Mauer’s play to score on Kepler’s grounder wasn’t so much about Joe making a good read, but the third baseman — in this case, Yolmer Sanchez — making a bad read. “I don’t think that was so much a good read by Mauer,” Gladden said, “But rather a brain cramp in the field.”

Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

To Sanchez’s credit, he plays all over — last year alone he played second, third, short and right — but this year he’s been almost exclusively at third, and has to make that read.

Eddie Rosario is absolutely sizzling

The left fielder came in hitting an absurd .455/.455/1.045 in May, and did not slow down as he had a single and popped a home run late to give the Twins an insurance lead.

Rosario’s homer was his seventh of the year — taking over the team lead which he previously shared with Escobar — and came against reliever Nate Jones, who is easily the best the White Sox have to offer out of their bullpen.

He’s hitting a very Eddie-like .282/.306/.547 on the season.

The Twins have won three games in a row since making an obvious lineup switch

I mean, I don’t want to take too much credit for it, but I tweeted this early Friday:

….and later that day, the lineup came out with Mr. Mauer hitting leadoff.

All I mean is this: the guy with the .434 OBP should hit in front of the guy who hits 30 homers per year. That’s it. Plus Mauer-Dozier-Kepler splits up lefties and allows the Twins to go deeper with quality in the lineup, all while making sure Mauer gets the most plate appearances — a huge deal when he’s getting on this often and the team is struggling to score runs.

This isn’t exactly a chicken-and-egg thing that explains why they won three of four in Chicago — the White Sox are just really bad — but this is the way to maximize run scoring potential while missing Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton.

These teams still have a lot of meetings left — which bodes well for the Twins, we think

These teams still have 14 (!) more meetings, a good sign for the Twins based on how young and quite frankly not too good the White Sox are. Burying the Twins early when they get nearly 60 games against the White Sox, Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals? C’mon now.

Those teams are all going to lose at least 90 games.

Notes & Quotes

  • Things are no longer lined up for the exciting showdown on Monday in St. Louis on ESPN. Instead, here are projected pitching matchups:  Fernando Romero vs. John Gant on Monday; Jake Odorizzi vs. Carlos Martinez on Tuesday.
  • Lance Lynn won’t face his former teammates this time around, but it looks like he may get that chance when they come to Minnesota next week for two games.
  • The Twins improved to 6-10 on the road this season with Sunday’s win.
  • Molitor on Rosario hitting of late: “It’s a big part of us playing better. When he swings better, we look better as a team and score runs. We had a tough time putting things together. His last at-bat, in particular, he fouled off some tough pitches. One thing he can do is hit the other guys’ best. You have to have some of those kinds of guys.”
  • Molitor on Morrison’s rounding into form: “It’s been coming. We’ve seen signs of better at-bats. He hung in there. Breaking balls have given him trouble with two strikes against lefties and he stayed on it and was able to poke it and keep it fair. You’re just looking for those kinds of at-bats where the load is looking lighter as far as the load he’s been carrying. He’s starting to put together some numbers here and some good at-bats.”

Listen to Brandon on Midwest Swing

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