The Twins just finished a successful
7-game homestand, going 6-1 against the Orioles and Tigers and now
begin a well-deserved break from the grind of the season as the All
Star break is upon us.
As usual with this club there were
surprises, frustration and more than a little bit of drama.
Let's dig in to some notes and musings
from the homestand that was...
Sweeping The Birds...
The Twins began
the homestand about as well as they could. Namely, with a 3-game
sweep of Baltimore.
The sweep began
with disappointment and a dramatic finish. The disappointment came
in the fashion of finding out that Brian Dozier hadn't been named to
the All-Star team. Sure, he was part of the Final Vote, but there
were plenty of folks – especially in and around the Twins
organization – that felt he was deserving of being selected by
players and coaches for a spot.
Dozier
made that point emphatically as he came to the plate in the 10th
inning on Monday night with the game tied at two and Danny Santana on
first. Baltimore closer Tommy Hunter was on the hill and served one
up that Dozier proceeded to deposit in the Home Run Porch in left
field.
After the game
Dozier talked about his emphatic point towards the dugout when he
knew it was gone.
“It
was Pelfrey. He always says, 'do something, Rook,'” Dozier said,
“I told him to sit right here, you got a free ticket, we call it
'souvenirs'. I coulda grounded out and I'd have still told him the
next at-bat, 'hey just sit right here'. We always say it every
at-bat, but it kinda happened this time.”
Turns out, that
wouldn't be the only drama for Dozier on the homestand.
Game two wasn't as
close as the Twins used a 3-run first and a 4-run fourth to give Kyle
Gibson a comfortable cushion to work with.
Gibson didn't have
his best stuff, but ground out six solid innings for a quality start
and his seventh win on the season.
In
the finale on Wednesday, Tommy Milone gave up just a single run over
his seven innings of work to backstop the Twins to a 5-3 win. Dozier
boosted the offense with his second homer of the series. The win
provided the Twins with their fifth sweep of the season and their
14th
series victory of the year.
The sweep was a
big boost for the Twins who traditionally struggle with AL East
clubs. They went 3-4 versus Baltimore last season, with two of their
three wins coming at Target Field.
Bird Watcher...
Joe Mauer
continued his hot hitting off Baltimore pitching. He entered the
series hitting .343 lifetime off the Orioles and went 4-for-13 (.308)
during this series, scoring 4 runs, and homering in the
sweep-clinching win on Wednesday.
On Sunday Mauer
had his 8-game hitting streak snapped. Over that stretch he hit
.371/.389/.600 with 2 doubles, 2 home runs and 3RBI.
Mauer had some
rough stretches to say the least earlier this season, but as he
enters the heart of summer, he's starting to turn things around. His
success will be key for the Twins in the second half.
Perk Is An All-Star Again...
Though there was
initally disappointment over Brian Dozier not being selected to go to
Cincinnati (the good news is coming – be patient), Twins fans were
thrilled to see Glen Perkins get selected for the third time in his
career.
Perkins earned the
save in the 2014 All-Star Game held right here at Target Field, and
now joins Camillo Pascual, Rick Aguilera and Johan Santana as the
only pitchers in Twins history to be named to three consecutive
All-Star Games.
Perk
earned his 28th
consecutive Save in Wednesday's finale, surpassing Joe Nathan for the
longest consecutive Save streak in Twins History. That Save also
gave him 116 for his career which tied him for third on the Twins
All-Time list with his bullpen coach, Eddie Guardado.
Dominating Detroit...
The Twins came
into their series with Detroit having gone just 2-7 against the
Tigers in 2015, but finished it with a more-respectable 5-8 record.
The series began
frustratingly as David Price dominated the Twins on the way to a 4-2
Tigers win. Price gave up just two runs in his eight innings of
work. Minnesota managed just six hits off Detroit that evening, all
singles and went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
More bad All-Star
news came for Brian Dozier on Friday as it was announced that Mike
Moustakas from the Royals had won the AL Final Vote and would be
joining the All Stars in Cincinnati.
In
Friday night's game, it looked like the Twins were well on their way
to extending their futile 2015 record against the Tigers to 2-9 as
they trailed 6-1 going into the 9th
inning. Justin Verlander had 2-hit them for seven innings, and
Minnesota had barely scratched out their lone run in the 8th.
But
the Twins bats came alive in the 9th
off of relievers Bruce Rondon and Joakim Soria. They strung together
five hits, a walk and a hit batter to score seven runs and roar back
for a 8-6 win over Detroit. A win that was capped off by yet another
walk-off home run by Brian Dozier.
Dozier is only the
second player in Twins history to record multiple walk-off homers in
a single homestand. Roy Sievers is the only other hitter to do it in
franchise history, accomplishing the feat back in July of 1958 when
they were the Washington Senators.
The win was the
first time the Twins had walked one off after trailing by at least
five runs since May 27, 1997, when they erased a 5-run deficit
against the Seattle Mariners.
That good vibe
carried over to Saturday, when there was good All-Star news for
Dozier as it was announced during the game that he'd been named to
replace the injured Jose Bautista and was now officially an All-Star!
It's not a tough
case to make that Brian is deserving of the nod: Dozier's 48
extra-base hits are the most by a Twins batter before the All-Star
break in franchise history and he leads all MLB second basemen in
home runs (19) and RBI (50), he's second in doubles (26) and walks
(34), and he's second in all of baseball in runs scored (67).
The
news came in the midst of another Twins win as they scored three runs
in the 2nd
inning and four more in the 3rd
on the way to a 9-5 win. A win that guaranteed them at least a split
with the Tigers. The
win featured a third-deck bomb by Torii Hunter that his teammates
joked was a result of “granddad pop”.
Hunter played
along with the humor saying, “I told all the guys when I came in
[the dugout], you gotta have kids in college to hit balls like that,”
Torii said, “and they kind laughed, but they said I was old.
Ruined the joke.”
In
the finale, the Twins jumped out to yet another early lead with two
runs in the first and four in the fourth on the way to a 7-1 win.
Kyle Gibson had a superb day going 7 strong innings, giving up just 1
run and striking out 6 on the way to his 8th
win of the year.
In all, the Twins
out-scored the Tigers 26 to 16 over the course of the four-game set.
The Sano Era Has Begun...
As frustrating as
Byron Buxton's big league start was (at least at the plate), Miguel
Sano has made the transition fairly smoothly.
He started by
collecting hits his his first seven career games, which matched the
3rd-longest such streak by a Minnesota Twin. The only Twins with
longer streaks to start their career? Luis Rivas with an 8-gamer and
Glenn Williams who began his career with a 15-game hitting streak.
Perhaps more
impressively, he took six walks over that same 7-game streak. A feat
only bested by Rich Becker who had eight walks in his first seven
games.
Sano enters the
All-Star Break hitting .378/.489/.649 with 4 doubles, 2 homers, 8
walks and 8 RBI. He has registered hit in 10 of his first 11 games
as a big leaguer. He'll have to continue to adjust as pitchers find
new ways to attack him. But if he makes said adjustments, he'll be a
fixture in the Twins line-up for the rest of the season.
Torii's Climbing The Lists...
On
Thursday night, Torii Hunter drove in his 758th
RBI as a Twin which tied him for sixth with Gary Gaetti on
Minnesota's All-Time list. On Saturday, he hit a monster 2-run homer
to give him 760 and sole possession of 6th.
That
homer also gave him 714 runs scored as a Twin, which passed Chuck
Knoblauch and gave Torii sole possession of 7th
place in that category.
And with one more
home run, he'll tie the legend and one of his mentors, Kirby Puckett,
for sixth all time in a Minnesota uniform.
Minor League Player of the Week...
This week the
award goes to an interesting name that's familiar to Twins fans.
Oswaldo Arcia appeared in eight games for the Triple-A Rochester Red
Wings this week, hitting .296 (8-for-27) with a double, five homers,
11 RBI, seven runs scores – and perhaps most impressively – four
walks.
There's no
question that if there were a clear opening in the Twins outfield (or
even on the bench), Arcia would be called up. At the moment, there's
not, but it won't be any kind of surprise if he gets that call sooner
than later in the second half.
Next Homestand...
It's
All-Star Break time. Glen Perkins is headed to Cincinnati for the
Mid-Summer Classic. The rest of the Twins are off for a
well-deserved rest. After the break it's a 6-game trip out west to
face the Athletics and Angels. The Twins return home for a 9-game
homestand starting on July 24th
that features the Yankees, Pirates and Mariners.
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