MINNESOTA TWINS 3, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS 2 IN ST. LOUIS
Date: Tuesday, August 1, 2023.
Batting stars: None. Seven Twins had exactly one hit, and they did not hit a home run.
Pitching stars: Pablo Lopez pitched six innings, giving up one run on four hits and striking out five. Emilio Pagan pitched a scoreless inning, walking one and striking out one. Griffin Jax pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits.
Opposition stars: Taylor Motter was 2-for-3. Lars Nootbaar was 2-for-4. Tyler O’Neill hit a home run, his third.
The game: Neither team got a man past first base until the fifth, when Ryan Jeffers hit a one-out double. Michael A. Taylor then reached on an error with two out, scoring Jeffers and giving the Twins a 1-0 lead. The lead held up until the sixth. Motter led off with a single, Nootbaar singled with one out, and Nolan Arenado delivered a two-out single that tied it 1-1.
The Twins got the lead right back in the seventh. Jorge Polanco singled and Matt Wallner hit a ground-rule double, putting men on second and third with none out. A strikeout followed, but then Donovan Solano hit a two-run single that put the Twins ahead 3-1.
Each team threatened in the eighth. Byron Buxton hit a two-out double for the Twins. For St. Louis, Nootbaar and Paul Goldschmidt hit two-out singles. Still, it remained 3-1 until the ninth. With one out, O’Neill hit a home run to cut the lead to 3-2. Jhoan Duran struck out the next two batters, however, and the victory was preserved.
WP: Pablo Lopez (6-6).
LP: Miles Mikolas (6-7).
S: Duran (18).
Notes: Christian Vazquez actually caught more games than Jeffers in 2023, although they split the time fairly evenly. Joey Gallo started at first base, with Solano pinch-hitting for him in the seventh. Jorge Polanco started at third base, moving to second when Kyle Farmer pinch-hit for Edouard Julien in the eighth. Matt Wallner started in left, with Willi Castro replacing him for defense in the seventh.
No one who played in this game for the Twins was batting .300. The closest was Julien at .293.
Jax had an ERA of 2.98. He would finish at 3.86. Duran had an ERA of 2.81. He would finish at 2.45.
Taylor Motter had played for the Twins briefly in 2018. He pretty much defines “futility infielder”. In 480 at-bats over six seasons, he “hit” .188/.258/.294. He could play all over the infield and also had forty games in the outfield, but he didn’t really help you at any of those positions. I assume he’s a really nice guy.
This is the first interleague game for the Random Twins.
Record: St. Louis was 47-61, in fifth place in the NL Central, 11.5 games behind Cincinnati. They would finish 71-91, in fifth place, 21 games behind Milwaukee.
Minnesota was 55-53, in first place in the AL Central, two games ahead of Cleveland. They would finish 87-75, in first place, nine games ahead of Detroit.
Random Record: The Random Twins are 11-8 (.579).