The Twins blew an early lead, got it back, pulled out a near-Houdini in the eighth… and in the ninth, the Pirates’ longest-tenured player won the game. Inning-by-inning notes:
1: AppleTV lets some doofus with an iPhone hover around the pitching mound during warmups. I wonder how pitcher Jared Jones feels about this.
He’s plenty warm. 302 MPH total on three straight pitches to K Buxton. A quick Brooks Lee groundout, and Kody Klemens Klobbers one.
Taj Bradley pretty warm himself; 99 MPH. A one-out, four-pitch
walk to Brandon Lowe, who has a .904 OPS. Then four straight to Bryan Reynolds, erg. Nick Gonzales rolls one to Lee, who should just eat it. He don’t. He tries making an off-balance throw, he airmails it, everybody take two bases!
Oneil Cruz with an RBI groundout, and Konnor Griffin with rocket up the middle. So, all three runs are earned, and Taj throws 666 pitches. Not ideal. Pirates 3-1
2: A leadoff Trevor Larnach single and five-pitch Austin Martin walk. Bringing up Victor Caratini, which ain’t what you want… but he walks on four pitches! It’s a TRAP. Luke Keaschall whiffs badly for his K. Tristan Gray falls behind 0-2… and singles to tie it up! 50 shades of yay! Unfortunately Bux hits it so hard, it’s a perfect GIDP ball, but still, good job gang.
TV shows how Kody in CF has a little positioning index card in his pocket. I love it. Hope it’s laminated, though. Sweat would muss the ink. Bradley still with a high pitch count (36) but strikes out Lowe nicely to end it after falling behind 3-0. Tied 3-3
3: Josh Bell gets a two-out single, important because Jones (coming back from injury) will be on a tight pitch count. Also important because it’s followed by a Trevor NarLaunch! Consensus vote is that it went in the Allegheny River.
Ha, Taj hit the camera in the first row. Not ha — Oneil Cruz hits some more fish food. Connor Griffin with a single & steal, but Taj Ks Endy Rodríguez to end it. Twins 5-4
4: Caratini with a leadoff single? He hits now? Ok. Nothing comes of it, though.
Taj finally with a 1-2-3 inning. Radio tells us that Larnach’s ball was the 86th hit into the river, Cruz’s the 87th. But only 7 have gone in on the fly, without bouncing off the pathway behind. Cruz’s was one of ’em. See what you learn from multimedia?
5: Brooks with a leadoff single. Clemens strikes out, and that’s it for Jones. Sidearming Evan Sisk — their best reliever — gets out of it.
It’s a bullpen game now. Eric Oozy Orze in. He’s helped out by a nice diving Brooks Lee play.
6: Young Wiber Dotel pitching. He’s been successful so far this year, and usually goes a few innings.
Luke Keaschall pulls off a nice two-out hustle double, but nothing comes of it.
Orze’s splitter is nasty tonight. He leaves after a two-out single. Yoendrys Gómez gets the next guy on one pitch.
7: Dotel doinks da Duals.
Apple pointing out the Twins have have a top-five lowest bullpen ERA since May 9th. This feels like jinxing. Anthony “Bad” Banda comes in with one out and one on. Gets the first guy. A long AB by Reynolds ends with a walk. Fortunately, Gonzales hits right into the shift.
8: Dotel STILL in. Still throwing 100. Still gets the Twins.
Banda still in, and leadoff walks Cruz. That brings in Other Cody, Lawyerson, his first game back from injury.
F**K. On a Griffin grounder, Keaschall utterly boots a throw by Gray that could have started a DP. This sends Cruz to third, and Griffin steals second during the next AB. Nobody out.
Rodríguez strikes out. Infield in. Ball hit to Clemens at first! (He moved there a while ago, replacing Bell.) 3-2 for the putout. Then… Jared Triolo lines it right to RF Martin.
Whew!
9: Lefty Gregory Soto pitching. Twins do Nada.
Former closer Taylor Rogers in for the Twins. Infield hit for Horwitz. Pinch-runner Tyler Callihan in for him.
Lowe strikes out. Bryan Reynolds… does not.
Home run. Twins lose.
Studs: Klobberin’ Kody, Larnach, Orze, Lawyerson. Duds: that infield defense (except the one Lee grab). Tay-Tay.
COTG to Zach for a pirate joke, Nagurski for fashion rules, Goose for frog collar kink, JustAnotherMinnesotan for Pirates hat love, and Matt for Pennsylvania pizza hate plus Clash Lawyerson joke.
Seriously, thanks to everybody who joined the thread tonight. Sometimes these CrappleTV games can feel like ghost towns on the thread. (And there’s another one next week…)
Tomorrow’s game is at 3:05 Central, featuring something called a Mitch Keller against our own soft-tossing Bailey Ober. Catch ya next time!
