Game Score: Twins 3, Detroit 2

[Jamie Cameron]

The Twins scraped a narrow 3-2 win over the Tigers on Tuesday. Strong pitching performances and Miguel Sano's 30th home run of the season led them to their 70th win in 2021.

Box Score
Starting Pitcher: Barnes 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
Homeruns: Sano (30)
Top 3 WPA: Barnes .220, Thielbar .098, Duffey .081

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

The Twins opened up their penultimate series of 2021 on Tuesday night in Minneapolis. Charlie Barnes was recalled from AAA St. Paul to start in place of Bailey Ober, who was placed on the IL with a hip strain. The injury brought an end to an incredibly positive breakout season for Ober, who the Twins will rely on for a rotation spot in 2022.

Here’s how the Twins lined up for the series opener against lefty Tyler Alexander.

Offense was hard to come by throughout the game, particularly in the opening frames. Barnes made it through four scoreless innings, giving up three hits and walking three. Meanwhile, Tyler Alexander put on a strong showing of his own, striking out six Twins in six innings of work.

Alexander’s only blemish came in the bottom of the third. Byron Buxton walked, stole second, tagged up to third and then home on back-to-back sacrifice flies, giving the Twins a slender one run lead.

Rocco Baldelli did not give Barnes an opportunity to work through the lineup a third time. Barnes was followed by scoreless innings from Jorge Alcala, Tyler Duffey, and Caleb Thielbar. Only Duffey struggled, surrendering two hits in his inning, although he escaped unscathed. 

Miguel Sano added his 30th home run of the year in the bottom of the seventh, increasing the lead to 2-0. A Nick Gordon walk and Willians Astudillo single had men on the corners with no outs. Max Kepler sacrificed Gordon home to increase the lead to 3-0 Twins.

Ralph Garza Jr. pitched a scoreless eighth before Alexander Colome entered to close the game in the ninth. Despite surrendering two runs on three singles, Colome closed the game. The win brings the Twins 2021 record to 70-87 on the season with five games to play.

Bullpen Usage Chart

	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TUE	TOT
Garza Jr.	16	0	0	18	19	53
Vincent	13	0	0	33	0	46
Thielbar	14	0	0	17	13	44
Coulombe	0	0	37	0	0	37
Farrell	19	0	18	0	0	37
Duffey	0	17	0	0	18	35
Barraclough	0	0	33	0	0	33
Colomé	0	5	0	0	26	31
Minaya	0	19	0	0	0	19
Moran	0	0	19	0	0	19
Alcalá	0	6	0	0	10	16

Next Up
On Wednesday, the Twins will continue their short series against Detroit. Michael Pineda will take the mound against Casey Mize. First pitch is at 6:40 CST.

Postgame Interviews

 

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[big dog]

Just when I thought it was save to bring Colome into games...yikes. Nicely played game through 8 1.2, Would love to sweep the kitties.

[mikelink45]

Colome getting the save is a great example of why it is a worthless stat.  He stunk again.  Getting out of the inning and giving up two runs in the process is not a good outing.  Please find a new home for him.

[ashbury]

Colome has to be the unluckiest pitcher on the planet. He always seems to be on the mound when the other team is scoring runs.

[Melissa]

Playing the Tigers this year feels weird.

You could field a major league team of nothing but Twins (present and former) with the eight players who batted in the first inning and Charlie on the mound:

Badoo (LF), Schoop (2B), Grossman (RF), Cabrera (1B) in the top of the frame, with Barnes (P).

Buxton (CF), Polanco (SS), Garver (C), and Donaldson (3B) in the bottom.

Where does the mind of the baseball fan wonder near the end of a lost season?

[bighat]

Good lord Colome is horrific. The end of the season is always a sad time, but not seeing Colome in a Twins uniform again is a silver lining.

[TwinsAce]

2 hours ago, Melissa said:

Playing the Tigers this year feels weird.

You could field a major league team of nothing but Twins (present and former) with the eight players who batted in the first inning and Charlie on the mound:

Badoo (LF), Schoop (2B), Grossman (RF), Cabrera (1B) in the top of the frame, with Barnes (P).

Buxton (CF), Polanco (SS), Garver (C), and Donaldson (3B) in the bottom.

Where does the mind of the baseball fan wonder near the end of a lost season?

Is Cabrera a future Twin? ?

[Mark G]

11 minutes ago, TwinsAce said:

Is Cabrera a future Twin? ?

Would be nice, but the one I want back is Schoop.  Plays 2nd and 1st.  He can spell Polanco when he is spelling the SS, and play 1st opposite Kirilloff as a platoon.  His runs produced stat is high, and he would only be about 30 next year.  Move Sano to DH, or as a package in a trade.  Just my extremely humble opinion.  

[AceWrigley]

Colomé's performance makes me think kindly of Ron Davis.