On this Barbie Day afternoon at Target Field, the Minnesota Twins said “Ken-ough is Ken-ough!” and decided to take the series from the St. Louis Cardinals!
The Twins looked to do some damage off St. Louis SP Michael McGreevy right out of the gate when Byron Buxton doubled & Royce Lewis drew a walk, but a Josh Bell ground-out to second base thwarted the B1 threat. Similarly in B3, base knocks from Trevor Larnach & Kody Clemens placed two on with two outs—and again came away scoreless when an oppo-drive
from Lewis died underneath the limestone overhang in RF.
Instead, it would be the Red Birds who activated the scoreboard first. After three solid innings, Twins SP Taj Bradley left a middle-middle breaking ball to Alec Burleson and the burly St. Louis slugger put it out onto the plaza. 1-0 STL.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long for the Twins to finally get into the offensive action: a B4 Bell base hit was brought home on a Victor Caratini poke to the plaza of his own! 2-1 MIN.
The long ball provided the next scoring as well, with a Taj T6 leadoff free pass to Nathan Church immediately haunting on a JJ Wetherholt whammer. 3-2 STL.
A developing Twins threat to tie the game in B6—Bell single, Caratini walk—was snuffed when a Brooks Lee liner was snagged by Cards 1B Blaze Jordan and turned into an unassisted twin killing.
Taj would hit the showers after 6.2 innings of 3-run ball—but also two Birds on base. You know the story from here: a Twins reliever—today being Anthony Banda—entered and the lead increased (bloop single from Wetherholt). At least Burleson was retired with the bases juiced. 4-2 STL.
Much like Friday night, however, Twins’ bats didn’t let a middle relief meltdown shut them down. In B7, a Luke Keaschall BB & Ryan Kreidler pinch-hit single set up Buxton at the dish. Buck of course delivered an RBI single. A Clemens single loaded the bases for Lewis—who cracked his own single to tie the game at 4-4!
Alas, a Bell whiff & a Caratini warning track fly-out prevented a lead change.
After Andrew Morris entered and K’d the STL side in T8, Keaschall’s 2-out double down the LF line set the stage for that much-anticipated lead change, with Kreidler doubling off the bullpen fence! 5-4 MIN.
Yoendrys Gomez would enter in T9 and provide that rarest of rare occurrences for the ‘26 Twins: a 1-2-3 ninth inning for the save!
Your Final: Minnesota Twins 5, St Louis Cardinals 4.
A really nice series victory over a strong St. Louis club. It wasn’t pretty Friday night or this afternoon, but the Twins battled all weekend and sent the strong contingent of Cardinals fans back down I-35 unhappy.
Zach’s Zealot
- Buxton: Basically a perma-entry in this category right now. Three more hits today & five All-Star ballot-punches garnered from this writer. Let’s make sure Buck is under the Liberty Bell in Citizen’s Bank Park come mid-July!
Zach’s Zombie
- Me, for reseting my Safari web browser yesterday and having an anxiety attack trying to remember how to get back into the WordPress admin dashboard (you are reading this, so man prevailed over tech—if barely).
Egg-cellent Elocution
- gintzer confirming another tall drink of water walking a dog in the Twin Cities area (not me, surprisingly)
Who’s Got Next
- Two-stepping down to Texas for a 3-game series with the Rangers (Mon. night, Tues. night, Thurs. afternoon). Yes, a rare mid-series off day due to World Cup activity in Dallas on Wednesday.
