The Twins frustrated in all the predictable ways today, with eleven runners left on base and a leaky bullpen squandering a quality start from Taj Bradley. With a 4-2 lead in the seventh, Minnesota’s pen gave up one run in each of the following innings to cough up the lead and hand the series over to the visiting Cincinnati Reds.
Bradley’s season ERA remains a dominant 1.63 after a six-inning start in which he only struck out five, but held the Reds to five scattered hits and two runs. The first of
those came in the visiting second, when a Nathaniel Lowe double sent Sal Stewart to third after a leadoff walk had put the latter aboard; Tyler Stephenson’s RBI sacrifice fly made it a 2-1 Twins lead, after a Ryan Jeffers triple had already plated a pair in the first.
Minnesota would get another back in a lengthy third that saw three non-ABS challenges, two of which were overturned (both Shelton’s challenges) and one of which was upheld (Francona’s, that scrub.) Within that inning, the play that made the most difference was Luke Keaschall’s line-drive single that scored Austin Martin, whose place on the bases was credited to one of the successful calls from Minnesota’s replay room.
The 3-1 lead was short-lived. The Reds got the run right back in the fourth, with Eugenio Suarez doubling and scoring ona two-out single from Stephenson, who was responsible for two runs driven in on the day. After a threat in the fourth bore no fruit, the Twins were able to knock starter Andrew Abbott out of the game in the fifth, putting a pair on with two outs and pushing the lefty’s pitch count to 97 (52 strikes.) Reliever Sam Moll surrendered an RBI single from Brooks Lee, whose stretch of plating baserunners continues. That made it a 4-2 game, a score that held until Bradley’s exit.
From there, the patchwork bullpen did its thing, and lemme tell you, it wasn’t their fun thing.
Justin Topa and Kody Funderburk combined to allow a run in the seventh, with Topa allowing a leadoff single to Hines and Funderburk allowing a two-run single to Elly De La Cruz which scored him. Eric Orze gave up two hits and a run in the eighth — two singles got the inning going, and a sacrifice fly/double play combination tied the game despite technically getting Orze out of a jam. And Cole Sands put the finishing touches on the comeback, letting another leadoff single set the tone, then watching it score on a Dane Myers knock after TJ Friedl bunted the runner into scoring position.
From up 4-2 in the seventh to slowly down 5-4 in the ninth, Minnesota went quickly against Tony Santillan, who earned his first save of the season and struck out two in a breezy final inning.
So, is it a bad weekend for the Twins, or are they coming back down to earth after an improbably successful week and a half? It’s three straight dropped for the Twinkies, who were nearly blown out in the Boston finale and have since seen known weaknesses rear their heads in support of back-to-back losses against the Reds. They’ll need to win tomorrow to avoid the sweep, although for now, they can take comfort in a temporary share of first place that still remains until Cleveland posts their final later tonight.
See you tomorrow!
STUDS:
1B Josh Bell (2-for-4, 2 R)
2B Luke Keaschall (2-for-5, RBI, 2B)
CF Ryan Kreidler (1-for-2, 2 BB, 2B)
DUDS:
Twins RPs (3 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K)
