Category: Sports News

Game Summary

Today’s game featured stingy starting pitching from both the A’s starter Lopez and the Cardinals Michael McGreevy. McGreevy lowers his ERA to 2.10. Jordan Walker and Victor Scott II hit homeruns, leading the Cardinals to a late 3-1 lead. However, the Cardinals bullpen was unable to hold the lead against the powerful A’s line-up. Stanek and Romero combined to give up 4 hits and 2 walks to gift a late 4-3 lead to the A’s.

But the Cardinals’ reputation for relentlessness held up when they mustered an HBP, an RBI single and an RBI double, all with two out in the ninth to regain the lead. O’Brien faces the meat of a powerful A’s line-up and wins the duel, closing out with a K on Rooker. Cardinals win 5-4.

Line-up (and roster) machinations

• An early start today, followed by a long flight to St. Louis tonight (and a game tomorrow).
• An RH heavy line-up against a soft-tossing LHP today. Fermin at first, Pozo back at DH, Herrera at C. Scott II, JJW and Gorman represent the LH side of the line-up.
• Burly gets a day. He has needed one.

The early going

Cardinal pitchers continue to assist Nick Kurtz improve his power numbers as he leads off the game with a solo HR. Michael McGreevy and the Cardinals benefit significantly from the sequencing gods as the A’s fell just a triple short of the cycle in that first inning but left with only a 1-0 lead.

The Cardinals meanwhile came out swinging in their getaway day offensive game plan. I didn’t quite get this considering he is a pitcher who walks more than he strikes out. But a flight home awaits! Throughout four innings, only Pozo manages a dinker of a hit into centerfield. True to form, Lopez walks 3 and K’s but two. Otherwise, eleven outs on weak contact.

In the early going, McGreevy allowed a fair bit of traffic, battling his command. But battle he did, holding the A’s to that one run through the first four innings, working only 53 pitches, so efficiency was good.

The middle innings – 3rd time through the lineup

Scott II violates the 3rd time rule by hitting a HR in his second AB, tying the tame in the fifth. The top of the Cardinal line-up, coming up for that third time, continue to mishit. This pitcher is throwing strikes, so what are you gonna do? Ends up with a 10-pitch inning even with the HR.

In the bottom of the fifth, McGreevy strikes out Kurtz and we look up and realize that McGreevy has now set down nine in a row. I am sure he is going to say after the game that he did not have his best stuff, but boy he pitches.

In the sixth, the third time through rule hit Lopez quickly as Walker hits an oppo HR, then Winn golfs a pitch just off the ground back to the pitcher that turns into a pinball machine triple that ends up ruled a two separate throwing errors. The A’s do not play good D, that is for sure in this series. Gorman gets a little dinker for an RBI single. He seems to have a knack for that. Lopez exits without getting an out in the sixth with the Cardinals up 3-1. After Leiter enters, a warning track flyball and GIDP end the uprising. McGreevy works through the bottom of the sixth on 74 pitches. 3 K. 1 BB. 5 H. 1 R. Ho-hum.

The run to the barn (or the airport)

Ryne Stanek relieves McGreevy in the bottom of the seventh. A strikeout, homerun and walk define his day. Romero relieves him and they ding him for three singles in a row plus a later walk and regain a 4-3 lead before the uprising is quelled.

In the eighth, the Cardinals strand a one-out double, bookending it with three popouts, the final one on a pinch-hit appearance by Alec Burleson. Svanson gets the bottom of the eighth. He works a mostly uneventful inning, collecting 2 K’s.

In the ninth, a Pozo single and a Wetherholt HBP with two out lead to a key 2-out RBI single by Herrera to save the day for the moment. This tied the game 4-4. Walker drops a double down the right field line for another RBI. Seen here. A new pitcher hits Winn to load the bases but Gorman flies out to douse the heroics.

Taking a 5-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth, Manager Oli Marmol called on Riley O’Brien to preserve the game, win a series and bring home a winning west coast road trip. A tall order against this team, in this park, with this bullpen. He gets to face Kurtz, Langeliers, Soderstrom and Rooker if anyone gets on. No big deal, right?

An HBP on Kurtz was an auspicious lead-off moment. A strikeout on yet another ABS challenge dispatches Langeliers, bringing up Soderstrom. Ole’ Abner did it again, huh? Soderstrom flies out. Rooker misses on three straight sweepers to close the deal. Good win. Relentless. Cards win 5-4. Svanson collects a win, O’Brien the save. Ho-hum.

Post-Game Notes

• Will have to check, but it seems like the home plate ump got overturned by ABS an unusually high number of times. I think it was into double digits, and even then limited because the A’s ran out of challenges.
• Can’t tell you how many times I had to change the title and the summary…
• Check out The Feed for this Post ”Today on the Farm – Wednesday 5/14” for updates on MiLB action.
• Home to St. Louis for an inter-league series against the Kansas City Royals.
• Is it my imagination or does the Cardinal offense struggle on getaway day games? It must not be my imagination, because this sentence is part of the Game Recap template and I rarely erase it.

Kyle Schwarber's seventh homer in seven games lifts Phillies to another series win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

BOSTON – A cold rain fell all afternoon and into the early evening in this city Thursday. There was a lot of chatter that the final game of the series between the Phillies and Boston Red Sox would be postponed and made up at a later date.

Kyle Schwarber is glad the skies cleared and the game was able to be played after just a 22-minute delay. He loves hitting in Fenway Park.

And, of course, he loves winning.

Who doesn’t?

Schwarber belted a two-run home run in the top of the eighth inning to break a scoreless tie and help spur the Phillies to a 3-1 win over the Red Sox.

The homer was Schwarber’s seventh in seven games. He led the NL with 56 last year and is leading the league again this season with 18.

Despite scoring just six runs in three games, the Phillies ended up winning the series. They have played five since Don Mattingly took over as manager and won them all to pull within two games of .500. They were 10 games under .500 when Mattingly took over on April 28.

“I think the biggest thing the whole series was the pitching,” Schwarber said. “It was lights out the whole series. Our pitchers were in the zone, keeping guys off balance, giving us opportunities. Even though we weren’t putting up many runs, they kept us in games and when we did get the lead they were able to keep it.

“The defense was big for us, too, in this series. We got a lot of big double plays and a play tonight with the infield in. It was a really good series with us not scoring many runs. That’s the way baseball is sometimes. You just have to find a way to win a game and we did a good job grinding and finding a way to win.”

Phillies pitching gave up just five runs in the three games. Starting pitchers Zack Wheeler, Andrew Painter and Jesus Luzardo allowed just two in 18 1/3 innings. Luzardo swapped zeroes with former teammate Ranger Suarez on Thursday night.

Schwarber helped the Phils win the first game of the series, 2-1, with a first-inning homer Tuesday night.

His two-run homer Thursday night, a blast to right, came on a 3-1 cutter from lefty reliever Tyler Samaniego with no outs. Trea Turner, who in the sixth inning made a run-saving play at shortstop, had led off the eighth inning with a single.

“I thought Trea just getting on base there to start that inning was huge to put a little pressure on them because he’s a guy they know will run,” Mattingly said. “It puts the pitcher in a little bit of a bind from the standpoint of trying to hold the runner and make pitches. It divides their attention just a little bit. So, him getting on was big, but obviously Schwarber’s still got to hit it. Lefty, righty, it doesn’t seem to matter. If they make mistakes, he’s such a good game-planner he knows what they’re trying to do.”

Lifetime at Fenway Park, Schwarber is hitting .333 (33 for 99) with eight homers and 18 RBIs in 29 games.

The starting pitching matchup was a good one, Luzardo against Suarez, the current Phillies lefty against the former Phillies lefty.

Neither pitcher allowed a run.

“It was definitely fun going against Ranger,” Luzardo said. “He’s like a brother to me. He made it tough on us.”

Luzardo bounced back from a poor start (six runs in three innings) against Colorado and delivered six shutout innings. He scattered four hits, walked one and struck out four.

Suarez did what he usually does – he mixed pitches, changed speeds, hit spots and limited hard contact over 5 1/3 shutout innings. He gave up four hits, all singles, walked one and struck out eight.

Suarez, who had not pitched since May 3 because of a tight right hamstring, was perfect through three innings and did not allow a hit until Alec Bohm led off the fifth with a single. The Phillies ended up loading the bases with two more singles in that inning, but Suarez deftly pitched out of trouble by striking out Edmundo Sosa swinging at a changeup and Turner looking at a cutter.

In a scoreless game, the Red Sox threatened in the bottom of the sixth. Luzardo allowed a leadoff double. A ground out pushed the runner to third with one out. The game remained scoreless thanks to Turner, who, while playing up with a man on third, made an excellent diving play in the hole to save a run.

Luzardo was sure to compliment Turner for the run-saving play after the inning.

“Big play,” Luzardo said. “I told him he was my hero. It was huge. It saved me. I put myself in a bad spot and the defense saved me.”

Two innings later, Turner sparked the offense with a leadoff single and Schwarber crushed his game-changing homer. Jose Alvarado and Jhoan Duran closed things out to complete the series win.

After the game, the Phillies headed to Pittsburgh, where they’ll go for another one this weekend.

Box Score

Milwaukee jumped all over San Diego starter Griffin Canning early, scoring three runs in each of the first two innings, and Kyle Harrison turned in another gem to deliver a 7-1 victory. After taking two of three from the Padres, the Brewers have now won six of their last seven games.

Canning started the bottom of the first inning with a strikeout of Jackson Chourio, then completely fell apart, walking the next four batters to bring home the Brewers’ first run. With just one out, the Padres had already sent Ron Marinaccio to warm up in the bullpen. Luis Rengifo came to the plate with the bases still loaded, worked the count to 3-2, and grounded a two-run single into right field to give the Brewers an early 3-0 lead.

Rengifo's FOURTH hit in the last 24 hours drives in two ‼️ pic.twitter.com/2ACYIOAQV9

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) May 14, 2026

Canning stayed in the game and managed to retire Garrett Mitchell and Sal Frelick without allowing another run. He came back out for the second inning and allowed a single to David Hamilton on his second pitch, then threw the ball away on a pick-off attempt. The speedy Hamilton ended up on third, and after Chourio flew out Turang doubled into the gap in left-center to knock him in.

This guy is unstoppable@BRiCEcTuRANGpic.twitter.com/VT4D5FODgq

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) May 14, 2026

At this point, Marinaccio was ready, but Padres manager Craig Stammen left Canning in to face William Contreras, who hit an infield pop-up, and Gary Sánchez, who smoked another double into the same gap to bring Hamilton home. Andrew Vaughn singled to score Sánchez, and that would be all for Canning.

We have six runs and we're still in the second inning…

→ https://t.co/eycfmE2vgmpic.twitter.com/AhtrEbYbxZ

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) May 14, 2026

After Canning exited, each team was only able to manage a single run, so the game ended with a score of Brewers 7, Padres 1. Milwaukee scored again in the fourth on a Vaughn double and Rengifo single, while San Diego got their lone run in the ninth inning.

The Brewers’ pitching staff — led by Harrison — didn’t allow a single earned run all game. Harrison delivered a beauty, allowing just five hits and no walks over five shutout innings while striking out seven. He got into a couple jams, but rebounded each time to escape without allowing a run.

Grade Kyle Harrison's start today vs. Padres | Brew Crew Ball

Milwaukee is now 6-2 when Harrison starts, and he still hasn’t allowed more than two runs in any outing this season. His off-speed stuff looked great, his fastball touched 98 mph, and he now has a 2.09 ERA on the season. For a Brewers team built around young pitching, Harrison has quickly become a dependable presence in the rotation and continues to put up elite numbers.

Kyle Harrison, Nasty 81mph Back Foot Slurve. 😨 pic.twitter.com/kliiM9XPVk

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 14, 2026

Also, for all the (justified) talk about the Brewers needing more production out of the left side of the infield, Luis Rengifo has been playing better and better. Rengifo was great this series — he now has seven hits in his last three games and has made a couple nice plays at third base. David Hamilton isn’t ever going to hit twenty home runs, but he’s gotten his on-base percentage up to .327 and leads the league in bunt base hits. When those two guys are contributing, the Brewers’ offense looks even better.

Heck of a play by Rengifo to end the inning

→ https://t.co/68EQQYUZ6Zpic.twitter.com/lOFu1U1Do9

— Brewers.TV (@BrewersdotTV) May 14, 2026

First pitch for tomorrow’s series opener against the Twins is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. Joe Ryan will go for Minnesota, while the Brewers have yet to announce a starter.

The Cincinnati Reds offense needed a blowout in the worst of ways, and boy, did it ever get one on Thursday in Great American Ball Park.

After having dropped a pair of regrettable games to the rebuilding Washington Nationals to already clinch losing yet another home series, the Reds exploded against Nats starter Foster Griffin – a lefty, at that – in a 15-1 thumping that felt like a lot of pent up aggression being unloaded on the baseballs.

JJ Bleday led the charge with a breakout game that Reds fans won’t soon forget. He slugged a pair of homers, including a huge 3-run one off the lefty Griffin, and later added an RBI single that left him with a 3 for 5 day with 2 dingers, 2 runs scored, and a blistering 6 RBI. Scooping him up off the non-tender heap and watching him develop immediately into an offensive force is the kind of thing that makes you think of one Scooter Gennett, though I do certainly hope a) I’m not getting too far ahead of myself and b) Bleday isn’t going to completely obliviate after just two good years.

Anyway, that was more than enough offense on the day given that ace Chase Burns was on the bump for the Reds. He delivered once again, firing another 6.0 IP of scoreless ball, this time with 7 K against just a pair of scattered hits and pair of walks. He needed 95 pitches to clear that, did so with ease, and turned the ball over to his bullpen with the game in-hand and a tidy 1.87 ERA on the season next to his name.

He’s a bona-fide ace, and he just made the 17th start of his big league career.

The Reds played add-on late after Joey Wiemer was summoned from the outfield to pitch, but that should only slightly diminish the contributions of Dane Myers (3-run dinger off Wiemer), Ke’Bryan Hayes (his second of an actual 2-hit game!), et al. It was a textbook get-right game, one that the Reds can hopefully channel as they take their talents up north to Cleveland for a weekend series against the Guardians.

“We have to be better than this.”

I don’t know if Torey said this phrase the past week. Probably not.

Difference with previous seasons, in my opinion, is that this team was never bound for play-offs. The starting pitching has become worse over the years, with several big signings not living up to the money they signed for and an ace that never became one and does not seem to bounce back. Apart from the one in shackles.

The last time we had a decent bullpen is almost a decade ago. Ever since it is a patchwork, but an ugly one. Yes, many big money signings do not pan out, but there are also other big money signings that do pan out.

The batting lineup was terrific over the past seasons, and the Diamondbacks did not seize the opportunity to bank on it. With several sluggers gone, there is not much left.

The Diamondbacks cannot do better than this. Lovullo said “we will be fine” after the series against Texas. What is fine? A .500 team? Probably. I had them pegged below .500 at the beginning of the season, so .500 would be fine, I guess. A disappointment none the less. A lost season once again.

Whenever you feel down, at least you always have the Colorado Rockies to cheer yourself up.

No news in Colorado.

Maybe you don’t remember, but the Colorado Rockies made a change in their front office the past off-season. The son of owner Dick Monfort became team president, former Diamondback general manager Josh Byrnes came over from the Dodgers and was made general manager, though he will report to new president of baseball operations Paul Podesta, who came over from the NFL Cleveland Browns with a big thank you from Deshaun Watson.

They didn’t do much, as expected. They let starting pitcher Germán Márquez go, he signed with the Padres. Instead they signed a trio of starting pitchers to a one year contract: Michael Lorenzen, Jose Quintana and Tomoyuki Sugano. The batting lineup saw Thairo Estrada and Orlando Arcia leave, instead Willi Castro was signed to two-year contract, while the Rockies also traded for our Jake McCarthy, infielder Edouard Julien from the Twins and first baseman TJ Rumfield from the Yankees. On paper, you could say the Rockies became better, though it is hard to believe they could be anything worse than the 43-win team from 2025.

Manager Warren Schaeffer is allowed to continue to let the Rockies do whatever they want to do on the field.

It is easy to laugh about the Rockies, but they are not that far behind the Diamondbacks, at the moment: 3.5 games. Since May 4 the Diamondbacks have a batting line of .184/.281/.290, which is just 1 WRC better than the last placed batters of the San Diego Padres over the same time period. The Rockies are not that much better, by the way, with a .235/.291/.394 batting line.

Since May 1, the Rockies are 3-8, but have been able to get some runs in. At the moment of writing they are wrapping up a series against the Pirates, and scored 6 off Mitch Keller in 5.2 innings, who got the win in his matchup before that against the Diamondbacks, when we couldn’t muster more than 2 runs off him over 6 innings.

So, yeah, you could say that the doctor’s prescription is to take a trip to Denver, get some fresh air and get better, though given the state of the Diamondbacks, you might wonder if the Rockies are able to take advantage and make things look even worse for Arizona.

One to gladly do so will be Jake McCarthy, who obviously is enjoying a fine season so far in Denver. His .288/.356/.500 batting line and 129 OPS+ is one of the best on his team. Especially the past two weeks McCarthy has been on fire with a 217 WRC+. Jake is taking more walks and hitting the ball a lot harder than he did in Arizona. His BABIP is similar to that of two seasons ago, so it isn’t that surprising that McCarthy is enjoying success in Colorado. It is a bounce-back season like he did two years ago. Painful though that it is happening in Colorado, especially with the hindsight of having Alek Thomas designated for assignment recently.

Matchups.

Game #1 Fri 05/15 6:40 PM MST, Merrill Kelly (ARI) vs Kyle Freeland (COL).

• Merrill Kelly. 5 GS, 26.0 IP, 2 W-3 L, 7.62 ERA, 6.64 FIP, 1.92 WHIP, 20/18 K/BB. $18,000,000.
• Kyle Freeland. 6 GS, 30.0 IP, 1 W-4 L, 6.00 ERA, 5.47 FIP, 1.47 WHIP, 28/8 K/BB. $16,000,000.

The strike-percentage is still bollocks and BABIP said Merrill Kelly was lucky against what is probably the worst team in the MLB right now. But, we will take those 7 innings and 1 run against to have ourselves think that Kelly will become the mainstay once again. He really needs to improve his command though.

Thankfully, Merrill will go up against Kyle Freeland. Freeland had a great start of the season, but injured his shoulder before a start against the Padres on April 12. He hasn’t been himself since returning from a stint on the injury list and got knocked around against Reds, Braves and Phillies (16 earned runs in 14.1 innings).

Freeland has faced the Diamondbacks 22 times in his career, with a lifetime 5.94 ERA and 4-9 win-loss record, though his stats at Coors Field are better against the Diamondbacks than at Chase Field. Last time he pitched against the Diamondbacks was in 2024, at Coors, and Freeland got a no-decision, giving up 4 runs in 5 innings.

Kelly saw the Rockies twice last season, and got a win in both of his matchups, one at Chase (7 shutout innings) and one at Coors (6 innings of 3 run ball). In total, he has faced the Rockies 17 times, taking 9 wins and 3 losses. With a 4.12 ERA in 9 games, with 5 wins, you could say he performs well in Colorado’s thin air environment.

Game #2 Sat 05/16 7:10 PM MST, Eduardo Rodríguez (ARI) vs Tomoyuki Sugano (COL).

• Eduardo Rodríguez. 8 GS, 48.0 IP, 4 W-0 L, 2.25 ERA, 4.19 FIP, 1.21 WHIP, 33/22 K/BB. $21,000,000.
• Tomoyuki Sugano. 8 GS, 42.0 IP, 3 W-3 L, 4.07 ERA, 5.61 FIP, 1.19 WHIP, 24/12 K/BB. $5,100,000.

Last time I wrote about Eduardo Rodríguez, I was a bit bullish on his recent performances back then. He continued to deliver two gems after that, against the Pirates and Mets. With just 1 earned run over his past two games, 15.1 innings, there isn’t much to criticise, although it is obvious he won’t be able to deliver such a performance game after game unless he becomes Eduardei Rohtani.

Sugano is an unfamiliar face for the Snakes, as he has never faced the Diamondbacks before in his career. That makes sense as this is only the second season for the 36-year old Japanese pitcher in the MLB. Last season he was a back-end starter for the Baltimore Orioles.

Sugano was performing very well until recently, but lost his latest two matchups, giving up 9 runs in 10.1 innings against Phillies and Mets. According to statcast he has the staggering amount of 7 different pitches: 4-seamer, split finger, cutter, sinker, slider, sweeper and curveball. All that off-speed and breaking ball arsenal is to hide a weak fastball collection (his 4-FB averages below 93 mph). Sugano has good command and hardly walks a batter.

Game #3 Sun 05/17 1:10 PM MST, Michael Soroka (ARI) vs Michael Lorenzen (COL).

• Michael Soroka. 8 GS, 43.1 IP, 5 W-2 L, 3.53 ERA, 3.18 FIP, 1.32 WHIP, 47/12 K/BB. $6,750,000.
• Michael Lorenzen. 10 G, 9 GS, 44.0 IP, 2 W-5 L, 6.55 ERA, 4.92 FIP, 1.84 WHIP, 31/14 K/BB. $7,750,000.

After the stinker against Milwaukee, Soroka pitched well against Pittsburgh and Texas and you could fairly say that he is de facto our top of the rotation, together with Eduardo Rodriguez. Who would have thought that at the beginning of the season? Soroka has faced the Rockies just once in his career and that was last season. At Coors Field he pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks. Despite striking out 9, he had to settle with a loss.

Michael Lorenzen has huge arms and therefore deserves to be on the Expendables. Ever since leaving Cincinatti, he has been mildly successful as a starting pitcher for several teams, last season in Kansas. With the Royals he pitched against the Diamondbacks at Chase Field and delivered 7 painful shutout innings, mowing 7 snakes down and snatching a win.

This season he has struggled, though seems to have been somewhat unlucky, although how unlucky can you really be when the lineup of two of the worst teams (Astros and Mets) scored 14 runs off you in less than 8 innings? Lorenzen has good control, but his command is off this season. He averages 94 mph on his fastball and also handles a changeup (normally his best pitch), sinker, curve, cutter, sweeper and slider.

TV: NESN

First Pitch: 6:45 p.m. ET

The Red Sox send their main pitching acquisition to the mound in search of a series win (weather permitting) Thursday night. Ranger Suarez faces the Philadelphia Phillies for the first time. He also makes his first start since leaving his last outing with hamstring tightness on May 3 against the Houston Astros. 

Here’s who the Red Sox will send to the plate Thursday night.

Series finale at Fenway. pic.twitter.com/VUg7hWKp0r

— Red Sox (@RedSox) May 14, 2026

The Phillies counter with Jesus Luzardo. Philadelphia’s current lefty has had a remarkably unlucky start to 2026 with a 5.77 ERA despite just a 2.95 FIP. 

A rainy day in Boston ☔#RingTheBellpic.twitter.com/KS1W5hcvKo

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) May 14, 2026

Another Thursday of Blog Lord game coverage, another coveted reverse jinx. I fixed Kody Clemens a couple weeks ago, and now hopefully the same can be said for Zebby Matthews after he delivered the best start of his career. 

This Miami lineup is sneakily talented, but you wouldn’t know it if you only watched this series opener (Ober 89 pitch Maddux) and closer. Matthews cruised through the seven innings, allowing just four hits and one walk while racking up five strikeouts and nine roundball outs. For a guy with home run issues like Zebby, that last number is particularly encouraging. 

The only real threat the Marlins put together came in the very first inning. Back-to-back singles from Liam Hicks and Otto Lopez put two runners on for the middle of the lineup, but Matthews quickly retired the next two batters to escape the jam. From there, everything was on cruise control. Following the two first inning singles, Zebby retired 19 of 22 batters he faced and not a single one reached second base. All said and done: seven shutout innings on just 83 pitches. That’s how you save the bullpen after last night’s SWR disaster-class. 

On the offensive side, things got off to an inauspicious start for the hometown nine. The first three Twins batters reached base to load ‘em up with no outs, but lefty Braxton Garrett struck out Josh Bell, Victor Caratini, and Luke Keaschall for a good old fashioned Twins NOBLETIGER. 

The first three batters reached AGAIN to start the second, but Austin Martin made sure not to waste it this time. A ground rule double broke the seal and plated the first two Twins run of the afternoon. Bell and Caratini each redeemed themselves in the inning as well, with a Bell double scoring two more and a well-placed groundout allowing Minnesota’s fifth run of the inning to come in. 5-0 Twins after two. 

A James Outman RBI single scored one more for the good guys in the third, but things went very quiet for the bats until the eighth inning after Miami finally scratched one across home. After 13 straight Twins outs, Luke Keaschall hit a one-out single. A two out walk brought up Outman, who again delivered an RBI hit, this time a double that scored Keaschall and Ryan Kreidler. Austin Martin followed with his second hit of the day for good measure to make it 9-1. 

Game, series, match. We’ll see you tomorrow night for the border battle with the Milwaukee Brewers. 

Thanks to the relative mid-ness of the entire American League outside of Tampa and New York, the Twins (at 20-24) sit just 3.5 games out of the division and 1.5 games out of a wild card spot a quarter of the way to the season. The competition is talented and won’t stay down forever, but the bullpen has been significantly better in recent weeks with some young additions and the Twins are right in the thick of things. Better yet, the team should start looking even better over the next few weeks as Taj Bradley, Mick Abel, Cole Sands, and Alan Roden start to work their ways back. Plus, they have 4-5 top 100 prospects on the doorstep that still should contribute at some point this season. 

Don’t count this group out quite yet!

STUDS

• Zebby Matthews: 7 IP, 0 R, 4 H, BB, 5 K, just 83 pitches
• Greatest Twin of All Time Ryan Kreidler: 2-3, BB, 2 R
• Austin Martin: 2-4, R, 2B, BB, R, 3 RBI
• James Outman???: 2-3, 2B, BB, 2 R, 3 RBI

DUDS

• No duds Twins win!!!!
• One small dud for Matt Wallner for getting demoted but the past two times that’s happened he’s come back and been the Twins’ best hitter. Let’s do that a third time.

Comment of the game goes to SooFoo for correctly identifying the Byron Buxton injury cause.