This week, my young nephew is attending summer Vacation Bible School. In terms of biblical tales involving heroes, he could have gotten a similar education by flipping on the ballgame tonight and observing Noah Cameron’s mound arc sinking the Minnesota Twins.
The starting pitchers—Dean Kremer in his MN debut & Cameron for the Kansas City Royals—matched zeros for the first three innings in this contest. Kremer because he had solid stuff—Cameron because he is a corporeal being in the past month who
throws with his left arm.
In the top of the fourth inning, the Twins built an exceedingly odd rally when Josh Bell walked, Kody Clemens hit into what looked to be a fielder’s choice until Bell deked out the KC infield by simply stopping on the way to 2B, and Royce Lewis bunted for a hit. Bases loaded…zero outs…time for the offense to break out, right?!
Somehow these batsmen made taking the lead anticlimactic: a Victor Caratini GIDP RBI followed by a Brooks Lee strikeout. 1-0 MN.
In B5, it was the Royals who’d dink-&-dunk their way (two singles & a walk) to bases loaded and one out. Kyle Isbel would sock a sac fly to tie the game, followed by a a 346-ft moonshot from Carter Jensen—into Austin Martin’s glove a few feet from the fence. Phew! 1-1 tie.
That would be it for the MN-debuting Kremer: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 88 pitches.
After Tommy Nance tossed a scoreless 6th, Michael Massey mashed an A.J. Minter meatball 422 feet over the RF fence to lead off B7. 2-1 KC.
Jeff Hoffman would make his Twins debut in B8 and set the Royals down 1-2-3 with 2 Ks.
Circling back to Cameron, his final line tonight: 8 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K.
There would be no need for a B9. KC reliever Steven Cruz entered and retired the side on 16 pitches, 0 H, & 1 K.
Your Final: Kansas City Royals 2, Minnesota Twins 1.
After upper management patched some bullpen holes, it suddenly ceases to matter because Twins lumber-wielders couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat (maybe an ark?) right now.
0-for-August continues.
Zach’s Zealot
- Kremer & Hoffman: Solid Twins Territory debuts.
Zach’s Zombie
- The entire offense (again): This is getting ridiculous. Two hits & 9 K’s.
Egg-cellent Elocution
- falcontimmy’s single-word exclamation about sums this one up
Who’s Got Next
- One more with KC tomorrow night, followed by a trip across the border to Cheeseville over the weekend.
