Minneapolis – What was billed as a pitcher’s duel at Target Field on Wednesday night looked as though it may be an offensive affair in the early innings of the Minnesota Twins series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But Shohei Ohtani did what Shohei Ohtani does, pitching dominantly and holding the Twins to a 4-3 loss and series sweep.
“We had an opportunity earlier in the game on a ball [Ryan] Kreidler hit that Mookie [Betts] made a really nice play on up the middle,” said Twins manager Derek Shelton. “That ball gets through, we take the lead. We had some opportunities. They just executed pitches.”
Any day Ohtani is on the mound and at the plate, the atmosphere throughout the ballpark is entirely different. Phones aren’t as much of a distraction as usual for fans in the crowd on nights like Wednesday. They’re tools to capture every movement baseball’s only two-way player makes, because there’s an understanding among everyone that we may never see a player like Ohtani ever again.
The sellout crowd of 39,853 at Target Field drew as quietly as possible before every pitch he delivered, and cheered loudly when the Twins managed a three-run rally in the second inning.
Victor Caratini got the first run on a passed ball, then Ryan Kreidler hit a one-out two-run RBI single up the middle to make it a 3-1 Twins lead. While that happened, Krielder saw Dodgers center fielder bobble the ball on his relay, and tried to get an extra 90 feet, but Andy Pages relayed the throw in time to end the second inning.
“Pages bobbled it in center,” said Kreidler. “I was ready to go off the turn. Off the bobble, I just thought stringing a couple hits together is tough off Ohtani, so I thought getting into scoring position was a good idea.”
As much as Ohtani was (rightfully) billed to be the challenge against the Twins Wednesday night, the real pain in their side turned out to be Mookie Betts, another MVP winner.
Joe Ryan had pitched well in the first two innings, with his only mistake being a fastball up and in on Betts, who drilled it over the left-center field fence for the 300th home run of his career.
“One pitch just kind of leaks, and that was kind of the thing movement-wise,” Ryan said. “The wrong pitch there, should’ve thrown something else, but Mookie puts on a good swing and gets his, what, 300th homer? That’s cool.”
However, the third inning became much trickier for Ryan. Alex Freeland, hitting in the 9-hole, led off the inning with a double. Then, Ohtani moved him 90 feet on a single. Ryan battled against Pages, striking him out. However, Freddie Freeman drew a walk, Betts caused more problems with an RBI single, and Max Muncy followed with another. Finally, Alex Call hit a sac fly that scored Freeman and made it the 4-3 final.
“I think it just, like, movement quality, that’s going to end up in a different spot probably,” said Ryan. “That kind of stuff. The results, we were kind of going for some of the stuff we got, [but] they just were in holes. Groundballs that just kind of got through. Just part of baseball.”
The Twins almost had another chance in the fourth to tie the game, again with Kriedler at the plate. Kriedler bounced a sweeper off Ohtani that looked as though it might get past Betts again. However, Dave Roberts drew up the infield well enough that the former Gold Glove outfielder showed his range and ended Minnesota’s best chance to tie the game.
Krielder thought it was going to be a hit.
“Off the bat, yeah,” he said. “Then, I realized Mookie is a pretty good athlete. Frustrated that one didn’t go through, but I didn’t put my best swing on that.”
Ryan pitched six full innings on 98 pitches, struck out nine batters, and walked only one. However, seven of the eight hits allowed through the first four innings proved to be costly. The bullpen picked him up with three scoreless innings from Anthony Banda, who faced his old team for the first time in the series, Yoendrys Gomez, and Andrew Morris.
Even with opportunities late in the game with runners on first and second in the seventh and eighth innings, they couldn’t get the big hit to cash in the runs they needed. After winning five of six on the road, the Twins suffered a series sweep by the Dodgers.
Still, the team showed the fight they have in two of three games, losing by only one run. With 80 games still left on the schedule, this team isn’t giving up on itself, even though they find themselves six games below .500.
“Last night we just didn’t play well, but we lost 2-1 and 4-3,” said Twins manager Derek Shelton. “And we pitched well, we played defense well, we didn’t get the big hit when we needed it. Some of it came down to the way they played defense. But I was proud of our group. We went out and battled against the best team in baseball.”
“[It’s] frustrating, for sure,” said Kreidler. “I thought we played decent ball. That’s a good club over there. Some pitches in some innings that we wish we could take back, but all in all, I think we’re still trending in a good direction, but frustrated for sure.”
