The Twins (13-6) are riding high on a 6 game winning streak as we head into a home series with Detroit (4-14). There is a good chance this streak will continue, and is asking for a third straight sweep too much? Did I just jinx us? Let's find out. I'm 3 games behind so I'm going to forgo my usual inning by inning highlight recap and just give a more general synopsis to catch me up to the correct day!

Game 20, 4-17-20

Odorizzi (3-0) has been a stud this season and he is facing off against Matt Boyd (2-1) who at this point of the season has half of Detroit's wins. Odorizzi started out the game looking like he may get a 1-2-3 inning, but after a single and a home run to JaCoby Jones and then a Jonathan Schoop double, Detroit had Minnesota scratching their heads wondering what just happened. Odorizzi got out just giving up the 2 runs. But Sano wasn't going to let Detroit take a 1st inning lead if it was up to him, that has been the Twins MO these past couple series. Sano shot a solo blast. Unfortunately nobody helped him out. Tigers lead 2-1 after 1 inning. Christin Stewart hit the Tigers 2nd home run to start the 2nd inning. The Twins were fed up. Garver started out with a double, Boyd got 2 Ks, and then the Twins went single, triple, single for Polanco, Buxton and Kepler. Twins lead 4-3 after 2nd inning.

Nick Ramirez came in for Boyd after he couldn't get the first two batters out in the 5th. It didn't help. Twins scored 3, capped by a Polanco 2 RBI double in which Cave got thrown out at home on an exciting play. Twins lead 6-3 after 5 innings.

The Twins added one more run late on an error and that is it. The biggest game highlight was Odorizzi pitched lights out after the first couple hrs he gave up early, getting a complete game win with 14 Ks. (4-0, 2.29 ERA)

Twins 14-6 _ 2nd Place, 3.5 behind Cleveland

https://www.dynastyleaguebaseball.com/GameRecap.aspx?OrgID=116202&GameID=3b2d052aa957490a9b801af8c9609365&ReportType=1

Other League News

Former Twin, Danny Santana who I was happy to catch play back in the day with Sano in AA New Britain, is having a huge start for the Rangers (6-14). While the team is struggling a lot, he jut hit his 7th HR in game 2 of their double header and is hitting .325. Milwaukee (8-12) beat the Mets (8-12) in 15 innings. After Milwaukee went through 5 pitchers, Jay Jackson came in and got stuck in there for 5.1 innings. He gave up only 1 hit and had 10 Ks out of the bullpen. Cleveland (18-3) keeps winning. They needed 11 innings today and Franmil Reyes hit two home runs including what would be the game winner in the 11th. Cincinnati's catcher Kyle Farmer is out for 3 weeks.

Game 21, 4-18-20

Game 2 of the series featured Kenta Maeda (2-1) vs. Jordan Zimmermann (0-1). This game featured more of the same. Twins getting a big win. Kenta Maeda's line didn't look great today due to a Sano error costing the Twins 3 unforced runs to cross the plate. However he got 11 K's in 5.2 innings of work. The down side of the Twins young season has been Trevor May. He came in for 1 inning of work and faced 9 batters giving up 4 earned runs. May's ERA has now ballooned to 16.20. I'm putting this up to small sample size, he is too good to be this bad for a big chunk of the season. 5 Twins batters had a multi-hit game today. Kepler, Arraez, Polanco, Donaldson and Garver. Kepler hit his league leading 9th home run later in the game, while Polanco got things rolling early with 2 home runs off Jordan Zimmermann to start the game. He is up to 3 HRs on the season now. Tigers went 6-13 with runners in scoring position and still couldn't pull off the win, as Rogers came in for his 5th save of the season. Twins Win 10-8

Minnesota 15-6 _ 2nd place, 2 back of Cleveland

https://www.dynastyleaguebaseball.com/GameRecap.aspx?OrgID=116202&GameID=f554243b93ea41f0a8acf77dc9216cf4&ReportType=1

Other League News

Oakland (13-9) lost Luzardo to injury during the game before he even finished pitching to the first batter. He was checked out and after the game, the A's reported he will be ready to go immediately, and you will see him on the mound in 5 games. More pressing was that Piscotty also got injured during the game and while not horrible, he is out for 2 weeks. Jorge Soler had 3 home runs and 7 RBI in Kansas City's (11-9) win over Baltimore (9-11).

Game 22, 4-19-20

Twins are going for the sweep. Their third in a row. Homer Bailey (1-2) is up against Spencer Turnbull (0-2).

Nobody could really get much done the first couple innings and then in the third the Twins got a run across the plate in a fairly cheap way. Kepler and Polanco both singled, but Polanco eventually scored on a Turnbull wild pitch. Cheap yes, but a run is a run is a run. Twins lead 1-0. The wheels fell off for Turnbull in the bottom of the 4th. Garver started the 4th getting hit by a pitch, Sano walked, Rosario doubled, Buxton doubled, Kepler singled, all before Arraez got the first out whiffing on three. But three runs already scored. Tyler Alexander came in for Turnbull and Alexander gave up a 2 RBI double to Donaldson as well. Twins lead 7-0. Things were calm offensively for both teams for a couple innings. In the bottom of the 6th Polanco hit a 1 out RBI single. Cruz singled and Donaldson got hit by a pitch before Garver lined out. Out number 2 of the inning. This is when Sano casually walked up to the plate and hit the third team grand slam of the young season. The Twins already have more grand slams this season in 22 games than they did in 162 games last year when they set a record in total home runs! Twins lead 12-0. Eddie Rosario added some last minute highlight film footage with an RBI double in the bottom of the 8th in which Garver got nailed at home trying to make it from first. And with that, that was the last hit of the game.

Twins Win 13-0.

Kepler did not get a HR today, but he did go 3-5. Sano went 2-4, with a BB, 2b, HR, 2 Runs and 4 RBI. But nobody's game was better than Homer Bailey. Bailey pitched a completely game shutout. Only 31 batters were faced as he gave up 4 hits, 0 walks and recorded 6 strike outs with a game score of 92 to get his second win of the season.

https://www.dynastyleaguebaseball.com/GameRecap.aspx?OrgID=116202&GameID=00d281fb2e1a40ca9e43a476f0c6af0f&ReportType=1

Minnesota 16-6 _ 2nd place, 2.5 games behind Cleveland. Next up is a 4 game series with (7-16) Seattle at home. Looking good for the twins in this one. Let's see how it plays out over the next handful of days.

Other League News

Oakland's (14-9) Chris Bassitt only pitched to 3 batters before he got injured (out for 6 days). J.B. Wendelken came in and pitched the entire rest of the game only giving up 1 hit to Seattle. The Rangers who are already struggling at (6-16) lost Andrus for 9 days, but were dealt a major blow when they lost Joey Gallo for 2 months as well. He was having a great start to his season hitting 6 HRs and has an OPS of 1.026. Tough break for the guy in first place of the MLB Players league The Show thing that they are doing. Check that out, it's fun. Trevor May is funny to watch play. Anyways, back to the simulation, Baltimore (10-11) snuck past Kansas City (11-10) by the score of 5-4 in the battle of the two teams that are playing .500 ball and shouldn't be. Wilmer Difo got the walk-off single for the Nationals (13-7) over the Cubs (13-8). Difo was only brought in the game because Eric Thames got ejected in the first. Indians update: They won again, behind Bieber's complete game shutout (It wasn't as spectacular as Bailey's was today though!!!.)

Twins Player Stats & More

https://www.dynastyleaguebaseball.com/TeamStats.aspx?OrgID=116202&TeamID=10&Report=0&GameType=0&Splits=0