Game 126: Twins extend streak to 5 with walk-off win
August 25, 2009
Baltimore @ Minnesota (Game 2 of 3)
Delmon Young hit a two out walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth to give the Twins another come-from-behind victory and win their fifth game in a row as they defeated the Baltimore Orioles by a score of 7-6.
Armando Gabino started on the mound for the Twins and had a shaky beginning to his first Major League appearance. Gabino gave up three runs off three singles and a double in the top half of the second to give the Orioles a quick 3-0 lead.
The Twins would strike back in the bottom half and score a pair of runs off a stand up triple from Denard Span to make it 3-2. Even with just one out, though, the Twins were unable to tie the game and left Span stranded at third.
Gabino’s struggles continued as he loaded the bases in the third before being taken out of the game. Philip Humber would come in for relief and give up a four pitch walk to give the Orioles another run before recording the final out.
The Twins would make up the run to close the gap off a leadoff home run from Justin Morneau, his 29th home run of the season. Unfortunately for the Twins, the problems on the mound continued as Humber gave up three more free passes at the plate, one of which walked in another Baltimore run.
Bobby Keppel was put in to finish out the fourth inning and struck out Melvin Mora with the bases loaded to end the inning. Keppel would provide some stability on the mound and gave up just one run in 2 1/3 innings of relief.
Down by three, the Twins magic in the sixth inning continued as they tied the game with a 2-run double from Alexi Casilla and a bases loaded ground out from Joe Mauer. All three runs were credited to former Twins pitcher, Brian Bass, who failed to record a single out in the sixth.
The game would be turned over to Jesse Crain, who pitched solid in two innings of work and only gave up one hit, a double, in the top of the ninth. The double caused no harm, however, as Jose Mijares shut down the rest of the order with a pair of pop ups and a strike out to end the scoring threat and the inning.
The Twins would close out the game in the bottom of the ninth that was started by a two out single from Michael Cuddyer. Jason Kubel, pinch hitting for Brendan Harris, would draw a walk and Cuddyer would score the winning run from a 3-2 single hit into right field from Delmon Young to end the game.
Delmon Young would go 4-for-5 in the game with two runs and an RBI. The victory brought the Twins back up to 500 and was their fifth win in a row, which is their longest winning streak of the season.
Gabino and Humber threw a combined seven walks. All five Twins pitchers recorded eight strike outs.
Attendance: 23,696
Game 125: Twins extend win streak with 2-1 win over Orioles
August 24, 2009
Baltimore @ Minnesota (Game 1 of 3)
The Twins scored a pair of runs in the sixth which proved to be enough as the Twins extended their winning streak to four games in a 2-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles at the Metrodome.
Scott Baker pitched another gem of a game and held the Orioles to a single run off four hits with five strike outs in seven complete innings. The lone run was given up off a double from Brian Roberts in the third inning.
The Orioles would carry the 1-0 lead into the sixth inning where the Twins would finally take the lead that was started with a triple from Alexi Casilla, who would score on a wild pitch thrown by Chris Tillman.
The Twins would load the bases with singles from Denard Span and Orlando Cabrera and an intentional walk to Justin Morneau. Jason Kubel would knock in the second run of the inning with a sacrifice fly to left field.
With the lead, the Twins would turn the game over to Jose Mijares and Joe Nathan, who would pitch in the eighth and ninth innings. Mijares would pick up a strike out while Nathan would strike out the side while giving up a pair of walks to earn his 32nd save of the season.
Attendance: 18,680
Cuddyer etched in Twins history
August 24, 2009
On Sunday afternoon against the Royals, Michael Cuddyer hit two home runs in an eight run seventh inning in route to a 10-3 victory. Cuddyer is the first player in Twins history to ever hit two in a single inning.
He also became the 53rd player in history to accomplish the feat. The most recent player before Cuddyer was David Ortiz who hit two in the same inning in a game against the Texas Rangers in 2008.
The home runs were numbers 21 and 22 for Cuddyer, which are near career numbers for Cuddyer who hit a high of 24 in 2006. Cuddyer also entered his name in the Twins record book earlier in the season by becoming the tenth player to hit for the cycle.
Game 124: Cuddyer leads Twins to sweep of Royals
August 23, 2009
Minnesota @ Kansas City (Game 3 of 3)
Michael Cuddyer reached a rare feat by hitting two home runs in the same inning and lead the Twins to a 10-3 win over the Royals to sweep the three game series.
The Twins got on the board in the third inning when Carlos Gomez would score on a fielding error by third baseman, Mark Teahen. The Twins would cling on to a 1-0 lead until the Royals would knot it up with an RBI single from Mike Jacobs in the sixth.
The tie game wouldn’t last long, though, as the Twins would score 8 runs in the seventh inning that was started and finished with a pair of home runs from Michael Cuddyer.
In between the home runs, the Twins would score five more runs off a double from Brendan Harris, singles from Delmon Young, Gomez, Alexi Casilla, Joe Mauer and a triple from Denard Span. Orlando Cabrera would also knock in a run with a sacrifice fly as the Twins were on their way to a 9-1 lead.
The Royals would add in a run in the seventh off Carl Pavano but that is all they would muster against the veteran as he would leave the game after giving up two runs off eight hits in seven innings.
Jeff Manship would give up a third run in the eighth inning but the Twins would get that back in the top of the ninth off a RBI single from Joe Mauer to make it a 10-3 ballgame.
Bobby Keppel would cut through the Royals lineup and retire the side in order with three ground outs to the middle infield.
Attendance: 18,680 (Kauffman Stadium)
Game 123: Duensing earns first win in 8-7 victory
August 22, 2009
Minnesota @ Kansas City (Game 2 of 3)
The Twins took an early lead and never looked back as Brian Duensing earned his first Major League victory in an 8-7 win over the division rival Kansas City Royals.
Michael Cuddyer put the Twins on the board with a leadoff home run in the second inning to give the Twins a 1-0 lead. Jason Kubel would knock in a pair of runs in the third inning with an RBI double to make it a 3-0 ballgame.
Brian Duensing would have some trouble pitching inside and hit a couple of batters, however, he would pitch out of jams behind some solid defense and hold the Royals to three singles and a walk over the first four innings.
The Royals would score, however, in the fifth with a 2-run double from Miguel Olivo that scored both Josh Anderson and David DeJesus. That would be the only two runs Duensing would allow in five innings of work.
Minnesota would make up the two runs given up and then some in the sixth by scoring three runs off RBI singles from the bottom half of the order in Brendan Harris, Carlos Gomez and Alexi Casilla.
Bobby Keppel would come in for relief and give up a two out 2-run triple to David DeJesus to cut the lead to two runs. The Twins would get a run back in the seventh with three straight singles from Orlando Cabrera, Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel to make it a 7-4 ballgame.
The Royals would cut the lead down to one in the bottom half of the seventh as Jesse Crain loaded the bases with no outs. Jose Mijares would try to pitch out of the jam but allow two runs to score off a single from Mark Teahen and a fly ball from Yuniesky Betancourt.
Orlando Cabrera would give the Twins a two run lead in the ninth by scoring on a double from Michael Cuddyer. The run was needed as the Royals also scored a run in the ninth off Matt Guerrier, who would close out the game and earn his first save of the season.
Attendance: 33,811 (Kauffman Stadium)
Swarzak optioned, Gabino called up
August 22, 2009
The Twins sent Anthony Swarzak down to Triple-A and have called up right-hander Armando Gabino to fill his spot on the roster.
Swarzak’s season was off to a promising start as he went 3-3 with a 3.74 ERA over his first eight starts. Swarzak has struggled, though, over his last four starts and has earned a 14.85 ERA over the month of August with an 0-4 record.
Swarzak gave up a total of 19 runs in his first three months with the Twins but had run into problems in his last four starts where he has given up 22 earned runs in 13 1/3 innings as his ERA bloated to 6.25.
The Twins are calling up Armando Gabino to fill the hole left by Swarzak. Gabino has pitched mostly in relief with the Rochester Red Wings but has had five starts. Gabino has tallied a 2.83 ERA in 86 innings with 55 strike outs.
Gabino will be given jersey number 63 and is penciled in as a probable starter for Tuesday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles.
Game 122: Twins win in 10
August 21, 2009
Minnesota @ Kansas City (Game 1 of 3)
The Twins would hand the ball over to closer Joe Nathan in the ninth inning with a 4-3 lead. Nathan, however, would have troubles shutting down the Royals and would have to settle for the extra innings win instead.
Nick Blackburn was on the mound for the Twins and immediately put them in a hole by giving up a two out solo home run to Billy Butler in the bottom half of the first inning.
The Royals would extend their lead with a solo home run from David DeJesus and on a throwing error from Michael Cuddyer that allowed Mitch Maier to score to make it 3-0 after three.
The sixth inning proved to be the magic one for the Twins once again as they tied the game at three. The scoring started with a one out double from Alexi Casilla to score Carlos Gomez. Denard Span would follow with a triple and scored on a fielding error to tie the game.
Span would knock in Gomez in the eighth to take a 4-3 lead and the Twins would turn to Matt Guerrier, Jose Mijares and Joe Nathan to close out the game. Nathan, however, would run into some problems in the ninth.
Nathan would retire the first two batters before giving up a 3-2 home run to Brayan Pena to tie the game. Yuniesky Betancourt followed with a double but would get out of the inning by getting David DeJesus to fly out to center.
The game headed into the tenth and with Alexi Casilla on first with two down, Orlando Cabrera would hit a triple down the right field line to give the Twins a 5-4 lead.
Nathan went back to the mound in the bottom half of the tenth to finish the game out and again ran into troubles but left two stranded before retiring the final two batters. Nathan threw an uncharacteristically high number of pitches in his two innings of work with 53 thrown to the 10 batters he faced.
Attendance: 22,283 (Kauffman Stadium)
Morneau to miss series in KC
August 21, 2009
Justin Morneau will miss the 3-game series in Kansas City against the Royals due to an inner ear infection.
Morneau was taken out of the game in the third inning this past Monday in the series opener against the Texas Rangers. He hasn’t played in a game since then and was sent to see a specialist in the Twin Cities on Thursday afternoon.
The Twins had a similar problem earlier in the season with Denard Span that landed him on the 15-day disabled list. Span experienced bouts of dizziness while playing and was diagnosed with vestibular neuritis. Span missed most of the month of June due to the infection.
Ron Gardenhire is hopeful that Morneau’s ear problem won’t require him to take a trip to the disabled list. Gardenhire stated that they would make the move if necessary but will wait to hear what the doctors have to say.
Game 121: Rangers flex muscles in 11-1 win
August 20, 2009
Minnesota @ Texas (Game 4 of 4)
The Rangers hit four home runs off starter, Anthony Swarzak, and the Twins put up little offense in an 11-1 blowout at the Ballpark in Arlington on Thursday afternoon.
Swarzak would give up the first run off the second pitch in the second inning as Marlon Byrd would hit a line drive homer to left field for a quick 1-0 lead. It would be Byrd’s first home run of the day.
Julio Borbon would get a 3-run third inning started with a solo home run to right field and Byrd would soon follow with a 2-run shot to center field to give the Rangers a 4-0 lead.
Swarzak would calm down and strike out the side in the fourth while Delmon Young put the Twins on the board with a solo home run in the top of the fifth to make it 4-1.
The Rangers, though, would open the game up in the bottom of the sixth with a five run inning. Swarzak would give up his fourth home run as Nelson Cruz hit a solo home run to make it 5-1. Swarzak would give a free pass to Taylor Teagarden before being taken out of the game.
Bobby Keppel would come in for relief and immediately give up RBI doubles to Elvis Andrus, Julio Borbon and Michael Young to give Texas an 8-1 lead. After three consecutive doubles, Jeff Manship would be brought into the game and would give up a sacrifice fly to Byrd before ending the inning.
Manship would run into more problems in the seventh and gave up a pair of runs off singles to Borbon and Young to give the Rangers a ten run lead.
Philip Humber would come out to pitch in the eighth to stop the bleeding by surrendering only one hit while striking out one.
Attendance: 21,870 (Rangers Ballpark in Arlington)
Game 120: Another come from behind win for Twins
August 19, 2009
Minnesota @ Texas (Game 3 of 4)
Much like the night before, the Twins found themselves in a hole but would come back with a late rally for the second come-from-behind win in as many days against the Texas Rangers.
Scott Baker was strong in the opening innings but ran into problems in the third. Baker gave up four singles in a row and the Twins had defensive problems that allowed the Rangers to score three runs.
The Rangers would tack on another run the following inning with an RBI double from Ivan Rodriguez to make it 4-0 after four. Like the previous night, however, the Twins were down but not out.
Orlando Cabrera would hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the top of the fifth to score Carlos Gomez to put the Twins on the board. The Twins would reload the bases, however, would fail to capitalize with any more runs.
They made up for it in the sixth with a four run inning that was started with a pair of doubles from Michael Cuddyer and Joe Crede to make it 4-2. The Twins would continue the rally and score off a single from Nick Punto, a double from Denard Span and a single from Cabrera to give the Twins a 5-4 lead.
The Twins would hand the game over to the bullpen to get them through the rest of the game. Both Jose Mijares and Joe Nathan cruised through the order and held the Rangers to no hits while Mijares struck out three and Nathan struck out two.
Attendance: 33,479 (Rangers Ballpark in Arlington)
