Well, that wasn't a lot of fun yesterday. The Twins are in the midst of a tough stretch - 2 against the Brewers, 4 at Tampa Bay, and 3 at Cleveland. I'd circled these games on my calendar a month ago, figuring that these would be the games that would really tell us what we had on our hands. I'm enjoying the heck out of beating up on middling (or worse) teams. But it'd be great to hang with the best. That Brewers series suggested we could - especially with a bullpen upgrade - but after last night's game, a bounce back in Tampa Bay would be huge.
For some reason I have it in my head that trips to Tampa Bay are kind of like playing against NY or Toronto for the Twins. Teams that just seem to play them tough. It's my hope that Baldelli knows exactly how to shift gears for this team when they need it. There's a part of me that would give him an awful lot of credit if the Twins can end up with a winning record in the stretch I mentioned above.
Hopefully it also help to have Berrios on the mound - he's due for a dominant performance. Ideally the offense will show up, and then some, with an answer game. Tampa Bay is using an opener tonight, and I feel like that's the kind of thing that never quite works out like its supposed to, so hopefully that's the case again.
Polanco + Tortuga = In Play, Run Scored
Like I said.
Good Berríos, please come back.
He made it back just in time.
Pretty good outing, all things considered.
two out RBI are cool
Twins with nine hits and only three runs. Rays also with three runs but needed only three hits. Home runs are efficient.
Walks will haunt.
Is it just me or have the Twins been historically screwed more by this joke in Tampa than average?
Revenge for the Metrodome perhaps
Yup, to all of this.
stupid dome
EDDIE!!!
A Rosy outlook to this game!
Rogers still out for the long save.
Great victory
Man, I’ve been conditioned to expect the late meltdown that I assumed we lost when I looked at the box. Happy to be wrong.
Did not expect Berríos to make it into the seventh and then Rogers finished it. Managers from the 70s and 80s would be proud.