Luke Keaschall was a much-needed spark plug, Walker Jenkins doinked his first MLB homer off the right field pole, Jeffers added two bombs of his own, his first since the last day of July, and Taj Bradley delivered one of his best starts of the season when the Twins most needed it. It was a fun night at the ballpark when the Twins really needed a win!
Let’s start on the offensive side. Facing Jackson Jobe, the former top pitching prospect in all of baseball, the Twins struck in the first inning, as they
are wont to do of late, with a leadoff double from Keaschall eventually coming around on Kody Clemens sac fly. And then things went eerily quiet for Minnesota’s hitters, also as they are wont to do of late.
They had chances to add on before the game exploded, but still didn’t hit well with runners in scoring position despite the big number on the scoreboard. They went 2-9 with RISP against actual pitchers, with an added hit off of position player Zach McKinstry in the eighth to juice the stats. A leadoff double from Kaelen Culpepper in the third gave them a good run scoring opportunity, but a Jenkins pop out and Brooks Lee GIDP after a Keaschall single kept the game at 1-0 after three innings.
Clemens came back around and added a run on his own in the fourth inning, a no-doubt solo shot over the dock in right field to put the Twins up 2-0. They had another great opportunity to add on that inning with the bases loaded and just one out, but the rookies Culpepper and Jenkins both popped out to end the threat.
Then came the fifth inning when things finally broke open. Keaschall reached first base on an error by the Tigers’ third baseman. Hao-Yu Lee couldn’t get the grip on a soft grounder hit his way, trying to get it quickly to nab a hustling Keaschall. Keaschall then stole second easily off one of the best defensive catchers in baseball, Dillon Dingler. Keaschall had third easily in the same at-bat as well, but Clemens fouled off a pitch to send Luke back to second. Clemens eventually walked before Ryan Jeffers hit a three run blast to give the Twins their first comfortable lead of the night.
It won’t come through in the box score, but this entire scoring opportunity only came around because of Keaschall. His speed and hustle caused the initial error, while the young kid dancing around second base clearly got in Jobe’s head and caused him to lose Clemens on a walk and give Jeffers a heater he could handle.
Keaschall has been digging out of his self-imposed hole since his terrible April, but he’s simply done nothing but hit after that. Since May 1st, the young Twin has hit .298/.399/.434 for a 140 wRC+, 15th best in baseball, and he’s been even better lately with a .325/.423/.519 batting line since July 1st. That production delivered a 163 wRC+, fifth best among qualified batters in that stretch, trailing only likely NL MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong, likely AL MVP Yordan Alvarez, Pete Alonso, and Steven Kwan. His lack of defensive ability remains a huge question, but the kid can absolutely hit and should be Minnesota’s leadoff hitter for the next half decade, at least.
The Twins added more in the sixth off of Yilber Diaz, who you may remember from his Diamondbacks days a couple months ago when the Twins scored seven runs off him. Diaz has now pitched in three games this season, two of them coming against the Twins. Against non-Minnesota based teams, Diaz has a sparkling 0.00 ERA. Facing the Twins, that number is a less sparkling 37.13. I’m not an expert, but that seems too high.
Though, Diaz has no one to blame but himself. He walked Lewis, Jenkins, and Keaschall to load the bases for Brooks Lee, who delivered a sharp line drive to right field, scoring two. Lee then tried to advance to second base and got tagged out, but doing so allowed Keaschall to fly around the bases to score from first on a single. Keaschall Khaos!
On the pitching front, it was a great, uneventful night from Taj Bradley. He lost his command a bit as the game went on, with the solo homer he allowed, two of his three walks, and a hit by pitch all coming in the sixth or seventh innings, but he once again flashed the brilliance that has Twins fans and coaches alike dreaming of him pitching in October. He was overpowering Detroit hitters all night, touching 100 MPH into the seventh inning and racking up nine strikeouts, while showing the ability to induce ground balls to get out of jams.
Jeffers added his second homer in the 7th inning, another run off of Diaz, though that might have been a mercy to Detroit, putting the Twins up by eight and allowing them to use a position player for the eighth inning. That allowed rookie phenom Walker Jenkins to take a pitch about a foot in off the plate and force it off the right field foul pole, his first dong of (hopefully) many more to come. A homer is a homer no matter who it’s off of, but Jenkins is the first player in Twins history to have his first home run come off a position player. Just like we drew it up.
Nothing like an easy Twins win to start your week. Just five more to go this week, boys.
STUDS
- Taj Bradley: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 9 K
- Luke Keaschall: 2-3, 3 R, BB, 2B, Keaschall Khaos (trademark pending)
- Kody Clemens: 1-2, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB, HR
- Ryan Jeffers: double dong night
- Walker Jenkins: first single dong night of career, dong doinked delightfully
DUDS
- NO DUDS TWINS WIN!!!!!
STANDINGS UPDATE
Who knows if this will be relevant next week, but for now it still is!
AL Central:
- White Sox (72-64)
- Guardians (69-68) — 3.5 GB
- Twins (66-72) — 7.0 GB
AL Wild Card
- Guardians (69-68)
- Orioles (68-69) — 1.0 GB
- Rangers (68-70) — 1.5 GB
- Blue Jays (68-70) — 1.5 GB
- Twins (66-72) — 3.5 GB
The White Sox and Orioles are still in action as I write this, so things will shift a bit. The Twins are still right in the thick of things though with head-to-head matchups with the White Sox, Guardians, and Rangers still to come. Making up 3.5 games in a month isn’t crazy, but leaping four teams to do so is another story. The Twins likely need to win every series (at a minimum) from here out, so tonight was a good start!
