ATLANTA BRAVES 5, MINNESOTA TWINS 4 IN ATLANTA (10 INNINGS)
Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Batting stars: Joe Mauer was 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs. Justin Morneau was 2-for-4. Pedro Florimon was 2-for-4. Ryan Doumit was 2-for-5.
Pitching star: Anthony Swarzak pitched four innings of relief, giving up one run on three hits and striking out three. Casey Fien struck out two in a perfect inning. Jared Burton struck out two in a perfect inning.
Opposition stars: Brian McCann was 3-for-4 with a home run (his fourth) and two RBIs. B. J. Upton was 2-for-4. Freddie Freeman was 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Jason Heyward was 2-for-5 with two runs. Evan Gattis hit a home run, his ninth. Tim Hudson struck out five in five innings, giving up two runs on five hits. Anthony Varvaro struck out three in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.
The game: Atlanta took the lead in the first inning. Jason Heyward singled with one out. With two out Freddie Freeman hit an RBI double followed by Brian McCann’s RBI single, putting the Braves up 2-0.
The Twins got one back in the second. Justin Morneau was hit by a pitch. Ryan Doumit hit a one-out single, and Pedro Florimon delivered a two-out RBI single to make it 2-1. The Twins tied it in the third on consecutive one-out singles by Joe Mauer, Josh Willingham, and Justin Morneau.
Atlanta got the lead back when Brian McCann led off the fourth with a home run. From there, no one got a man past first until the eighth. Joe Mauer led off the inning with a single and Josh Willingham walked. With one out, Trevor Plouffe! and Ryan Doumit hit consecutive one-out RBI singles to give the Twins their first lead of the game at 4-3.
It would turn out to be their only lead of the game. It held until the bottom of the ninth, when with two out Evan Gattis hit a pinch-hit home run to tie the game. The tenth was similar. The first two batters went out, but Jason Heyward doubled, Justin Upton was intentionally walked, and Freddie Freeman singled home the deciding run for the Braves.
WP: Craig Kimbrel (1-1).
LP: Brian Duensing (0-1).
S: None.
Notes: Jamey Carroll was at second base in place of Brian Dozier. Ryan Doumit was in right field. Chris Parmelee played the most games in right (68), with Doumit following at 32. Doumit played the most games at DH (49), but there was no DH in this game.
Joe Mauer was batting .337. He would finish at .324. Justin Morneau was batting .309. He would finish at .259.
Jared Burton had an ERA of 2.25. He would finish at 3.82.
Andrelton Simmons was the Atlanta shortstop, going 0-for-5. He would play for the Twins in 2021.
The Twins had ten hits, all singles.
The Twins emptied their bench. Oswaldo Arcia and Chris Parmelee were used as pinch-hitters. Brian Dozier was a pinch-runner. Wilkin Ramirez and Eduardo Escobar came in to play defense.
The Twins had eight pitchers who made ten or more starts. Five of them had ERAs above five: Mike Pelfrey, who started this game (5.19), Scott Diamond (5.43), Kyle Gibson (6.53), Pedro Hernandez (6.83), and the Vanimal, Vance Worley (7.21). In addition, Liam Hendriks, who made eight starts, ahd an ERA of 6.85. In total, the Twins gave 93 starts to pitchers with ERAs over five. It’s hard to win that way.
Record: Atlanta was 27-18, in first place in the NL East, 4.5 games ahead of Washington. They would finish 96-66, in first place, ten games ahead of Washington
The Twins were 18-24, in fifth (last) place in the AL Central, seven games behind Cleveland. They would finish 66-96, in fourth place, twenty-seven games behind Detroit.
Random Record: The Random Twins are 30-36 (.455).