CLEVELAND GUARDIANS 3, MINNESOTA TWINS 1 IN MINNESOTA

Date:  Saturday, April 6, 2024.

Batting stars:  None.

Pitching stars:  Joe Ryan struck out seven in six innings, giving up three runs on five hits.  Jorge Alcala struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up one hit.  Jay Jackson struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.

Opposition stars:  Brayan Rocchio was 2-for-3.  David Fry hit a three-run homer, his first.  Carlos Carrasco struck out six in three innings, giving up one run on one hit and three walks.  Six relievers combined to shutout the Twins for six innings, giving up one hit and four walks and striking out eight.

The game:  The Twins scored in the bottom of the first when Carlos Carrasco drew a one-out walk and Alex Kirilloff followed with a triple.  In the second, Josh Naylor was hit by a pitch, Will Brennan singled with one out, and David Fry hit a two-out three-run homer, making it 3-1 Cleveland.

And that was it for scoring.  The Twins drew a pair of walks in the third, but the other three batters that inning struck out.  In the fifth their first two batters reach on a hit batsman and an error, but the next three couldn’t get the ball out of the infield.  In the sixth they loaded the bases with one out on two hit batsmen and a walk, but the next two batters struck out.  They opened the seventh with two walks, but a double play took them out of the inning.  A frustrating offensive game, to be sure.

WP:  Nick Sandlin (2-0).

LP:  Joe Ryan (0-1).

S:  Emmanuel Clase (4).

Notes:  As we’ve noted before, the 2024 Twins only had a couple of “regulars” and a number of “semi-regulars”.  Alex Kirilloff was at first base in place of Carlos Santana.  Willi Castro was at third.  Jose Miranda played the most games there with 79, followed by Royce Lewis (51) and Kyle Farmer (29).  Matt Wallner was in left.  Manuel Margot played the most games there (65), followed by Trevor Larnach (52), Austin Martin (40), and Willi Castro (34).  Santana was the DH.  Larnach had the most games there (52), followed by Ryan Jeffers (34), Lewis (28), and Miranda (27).

Alex Kirilloff was batting .385.  He would finish at .201.  Carlos Correa was batting .364.  He would finish at .310.

Jorge Alcala had an ERA of 0.00.  He would finish at 3.24.  Jay Jackson had an ERA of 0.00.  He would finish at 7.52.

The Twins had just two hits, but drew seven walks and had three hit batsmen.  They stranded eleven, going 0-for-11 with men in scoring position.  They struck out fourteen times.

Alex Kirilloff hit five triples in his career.  Three of them came in 2024.

Jay Jackson appeared in twenty games for the Twins in 2024, and I have no memory of him at all.  Granted, they were all in the first part of the season, when I was still working and not able to pay close attention, but still.  He gave up runs in twelve of his twenty appearances, adding up to an ERA of 7.52.  The Twins released him in July.

Six of the Twins nine starters had batting averages below .200.  Carlos Santana (.150), Edouard Julien (.130), Willi Castro (.130), Ryan Jeffers (.111), Matt Wallner (.100), and Max Kepler (.050).  Yes, it was very early in the season, and they would do better.  Still, that’s a really rough start.

Record:  Cleveland was 7-2, in first place in the AL Central, a half game ahead of Detroit.  They would finish 92-69, in first place, 6.5 games ahead of Detroit and Kansas City.

The Twins were 3-4, in fourth place in the AL Central, three games behind Cleveland.  They would finish 82-20, in fourth place, 10.5 games behind Cleveland.

Random Record:  The Random Twins are 38-44 (.463).