Twins 3, Astros 2: Farmer Walks Off the Astros!

[Steven Trefz]

The Twins came into the Home Opener off of a two-game losing streak, facing the reigning World Series Champion Houston Astros. On a chilly day at Target Field, Sonny Gray led the way with 13 strikeouts, and the Twins got their first walk-off winner in 2023!

Image courtesy of Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports

Minneapolis - Following a 4-2 opening road trip to Kansas City and Miami, the Twins aimed to regain their winning ways in the 2023 home opener. With the temps hovering in the high 40's, the fans hoped that Sonny Gray could warm up everyone's spirits with another impactful start. The reigning World Series Champion Astros sought to regain some momentum for their 2023 season, after coming to the Twin Cities with a 3-4 record. The Twins would give up the lead in the top of the 10th, only to send the fan faithful home happy with a 3-2 walk-off winner! Here's how it all went down.

Box Score
SP: Sonny Gray: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 13 K (98 pitches, 61 strikes (62%)
Home Runs:  None
Top 3 WPA: Jose Miranda (0.288), Sonny Gray (0.254), Donovan Solano (.176)

Win Probability Chart

Opening Day!

Before the first pitch, the Twins hosted a morning breakfast at the ballpark, Twins Daily hosted a pregame watch party, and Mother Nature hosted a Sonny Gray, I mean, a sunny day at half the temperature of the last Twins game. The Twins set their lineup to combat Jose Urquidy and his reverse-split arsenal of pitches with more right-handed bats than usual. The usual opening day fanfare set the stage for the main event.

The Astros Strike First
With Max Kepler suffering a knee injury Monday night, the question of "Who will lead off?" continues to vary from game to game, but Byron Buxton got the call again today. The Twins bats again began the game on "silent mode," and they were only able to mount two singles through the first three innings.

The Astros didn't start out any stronger, but they were able to follow up a Mauricio Dubon double with an Alex Bregman single to the wall, to take a 1-0 lead.

A Sonny Day
Despite the early run, Gray was dealing, recording a career-high 13 strikeouts through seven innings, and keeping a potent Astros offense to only one run. 

Piranha Style Comeback
After wasting a lead-off double from Michael Taylor in the fifth, the Twins struck piranha style in the bottom of the sixth inning. Donovan Solano ripped a single with one out, and advanced to second base on Kyle Farmer's single under the second baseman's glove to right. Nick Gordon came in to pinch hit for Joey Gallo (right-side soreness), and responded by slapping a fielder's choice ground ball to short. The scene was set for Christian Vasquez's hero story, and reliever Bryan Abreu took the opportunity away from him by firing a wild pitch to the backstop. Solano scored, tying the game 1-1. After Vasquez walked, Michael Taylor struck out swinging to end the threat.

Bullpen Time
The end of the game got handed to the bullpen, and Griffin Jax got a chance to avenge his last outing versus the Marlins. Jax responded with a 1-2-3 eighth. Jose Miranda led off the eighth inning with a single but was left at first base. Jhoan Duran took the ninth for the home team for the first time since opening day last week, and his reward was facing Yordan Alvarez, Jose Abreu, and Kyle Tucker. Alvarez walked on a full count, but Duran was able to lock up Abreu on a perfect curveball at the bottom of the zone. Tucker also struck out on 101 high heat, and David Hensley grounded out weakly to end the inning. However, former Twin Ryan Pressly entered the bottom of the ninth and easily shut down the Twins in order.

Extra Baseball! 
In an attempt to give the fans their money's worth, the Twins entered extra innings for the first time this season. Jorge Lopez tried to keep the ghost runner Hensley from scoring, but after getting the lead-off batter, Dubon struck again with a seeing-eye single through the drawn in infield to put the Astros up 2-1. 

The Astros countered with Ryne Stanek, and he promptly struck out Carlos Correa looking on a full count. A passed ball moved Buxton to third base with one out, and Trevor Larnach walked on a full count. Miranda was the next potential hero to come to the plate, and he delivered! His single to right plated Buxton and sent Larnach to second base. An immediate wild pitch by Stanek advanced both runners, and Solano walked after Maldonado saved yet another wayward pitch.

This all led to the new Twin Farmer, in his first home game, to come up with the bases loaded and only one out. Twins fans were able to go home happy today, as he delivered with a base hit up the middle to score Larnach for the winning run!

Final Thoughts
Twins fans packed Target Field in hopes of righting the ship, and starting a new narrative against elite-level ballclubs. Sonny Gray led the way with a career-high performance, but the Twins bats again couldn't keep pace throughout the game. Luckily, the Astros bullpen ran out of steam before the Twins bullpen did, and single after single brought home the opening day victory!

What’s Next? 
The Twins will attempt to keep the momentum going by sending to the mound Joe Ryan in Game 2 of the series (1-0, 1.50 ERA) on Saturday afternoon. The team will face Astros right-hander Luis Garcia (0-1, 5.40 ERA). The game is scheduled for 1:10 pm CDT.  

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage

	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	TOT
Sands	28	0	0	0	0	28
Pagán	0	26	0	0	0	26
Alcalá	25	0	0	0	0	25
Jax	0	0	9	0	13	22
Durán	0	0	0	0	19	19
Morán	0	15	0	0	0	15
Thielbar	0	0	13	0	0	13
López	0	0	0	0	8	8

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[DocBauer]

Yeah baby!

[jmlease1]

Really nice win. Goodness, Sonny Gray was good! Excellent to see Miranda get cooking a little bit; I wasn't really worried about him, but I'm sure it's good for him as a younger player to get a 3-hit game and a game-winner early on for the ol' confidence.

Pitching held up nicely against a team many are predicting to win it all, so that's not bad either.

[FlyingFinn]

Some have been complaining about our bench. Solano and Farmer really came through today. Love our pitching. Great game.

If Gallo and Kepler are both out tomorrow, we must make a move to put one of them on the IL and get Wallner up here. Our bench can't be that short.

[stringer bell]

1 minute ago, FlyingFinn said:

Some have been complaining about our bench. Solano and Farmer really came through today. Love our pitching. Great game.

If Gallo and Kepler are both out tomorrow, we must make a move to put one of them on the IL and get Wallner up here. Our bench can't be that short.

Here we go with the injuries. Those soft tissue muscle injuries are notorious for healing slowly.

[Dman]

Holy crap! Sonny Gray.  13 K's 7 innings not used to seeing that.  Also thank you Miranda and Farmer for being clutch!  I couldn't watch but awesome walk off home opener!  Everyone got their money's worth.

[h2oface]

Great home opener win!!!!

That box score link goes to yahoo and the season opener with KC (unless they have fixed it when you read this).

Use this one:

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/astros-vs-twins/2023/04/07/718684/final/box

As good as Gray has been, the batters have left him with 2 no decisions. deGrom'd without losing the game, even though they gave up the lead. [Edit: Gray DID get the win in his first start]

Did Gallo hurt himself doing his Delman Young impersonation in right field?

[ToriiRules!!]

This teams weakness was always going to be the offense…. There’s just not enough there!!

[ToriiRules!!]

I mean when you have solano bat 3rd there’s something wrong 

[Cap'n Piranha]

12 minutes ago, ToriiRules!! said:

I mean when you have solano bat 3rd there’s something wrong 

Good thing Solano batted 5th then.

[Steven Trefz]

31 minutes ago, h2oface said:

Great home opener win!!!!

That box score link goes to yahoo and the season opener with KC (unless they have fixed it when you read this).

Use this one:

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/astros-vs-twins/2023/04/07/718684/final/box

As good as Gray has been, the batters have left him with 2 no decisions. deGrom'd without losing the game, even though they gave up the lead.

Did Gallo hurt himself doing his Delman Young impersonation in right field?

That’s my fault!  Extras got me scrambling!  Thanks!

[ToriiRules!!]

48 minutes ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

Good thing Solano batted 5th then.

He batted 3rd the other day!!! And even having him bat 5th isn’t a good day 

[big dog]

I was listening on the radio and wondered how Bregman only got a single on a ball off the RF wall. Then I watched the clip and saw Gallo's throw. Holy mackerel. That's an arm.

I'm 62 yrs old and it's kind of embarrassing how happy the 10th inning made me feel. Great win.

[IndianaTwin]

17 minutes ago, big dog said:

I was listening on the radio and wondered how Bregman only got a single on a ball off the RF wall. Then I watched the clip and saw Gallo's throw. Holy mackerel. That's an arm.

I'm 62 yrs old and it's kind of embarrassing how happy the 10th inning made me feel. Great win.

You're 62. If you have kids (and grandkids), it's your job to be embarrassing. 

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, h2oface said:

 

As good as Gray has been, the batters have left him with 2 no decisions. deGrom'd without losing the game, even though they gave up the lead.

Gray got the win in his first start. 

[puckstopper1]

SSS but the Mets and the Giants are looking like they made the right move by not giving Correa all that cash. Three whiffs and GIDP today.  Very Sano like. 

The Twins will definitely need more offense as the season moves forward, and Correa needs to be a significant part of that.

 

[rv78]

Didn't see the game but from the sound of it, they got lucky with the wild pitch in the 6th to score the tying run. Otherwise the game doesn't go into extras and they lose 1-0. Only scoring 3 runs, 1 on a wild pitch, on 11 Hits and 4 Walks isn't going to cut it most of the season. 

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Today the Twins won the most important game of this season. Tomorrow will be the most important game of this season.

[spanman2]

Great team victory...Gardy called in and said 'The boys battled their tails off'...WIN TWINS!

[Jocko87]

1 hour ago, big dog said:

I was listening on the radio and wondered how Bregman only got a single on a ball off the RF wall. Then I watched the clip and saw Gallo's throw. Holy mackerel. That's an arm.

I'm 62 yrs old and it's kind of embarrassing how happy the 10th inning made me feel. Great win.

He made two great throws on the other doubles too. Hopefully the sore right side is just from uncorking the hose too many times. I like him in right with that arm, absolute weapon.

[terrydactyls]

1 hour ago, IndianaTwin said:

You're 62. If you have kids (and grandkids), it's your job to be embarrassing. 

Hell, I'm 76 and don't have kids or grandkids, and I still get embarrassing when the Twins get a walk-off win.

[stringer bell]

8 minutes ago, Jocko87 said:

He made two great throws on the other doubles too. Hopefully the sore right side is just from uncorking the hose too many times. I like him in right with that arm, absolute weapon.

I thought he could have caught one or both of the balls that went over his head. It takes more than a great arm to be a great outfielder. If that's all it takes, Cuddy would have had gold gloves to go along with his silver bats.

[Aerodeliria]

The pitching has been outstanding, but the Twins had better figure out how to score a few more runs--27 runs over seven games but 18 of those in two of the games. No runs driven in again today (except in the extra frame)...0-9 with runners in scoring position...maybe Correa shouldn't have given his bat away ;-)

[ToriiRules!!]

Id rather have Julien up trying to figure it out than solano batting in the meat of the lineup 

[Joe A. Preusser]

1 hour ago, puckstopper1 said:

SSS BUT the Mets and the Giants are looking like they made the right move by not giving Correa all that cash. Three whiffs and GIDP today.  Very Sano like. 

The Twins will definitely need more offense as the season moves forward, and Correa needs to be a significant part of that.

 

Yeah, there.is no BUT.  I can find you a 7 number (games played in this case) sample size to prove almost anything in this world. 

I would bet my next paycheck that Correa ends the year with an OPS+ of 115 or better.  Oh, and great/elite defense.  

 

[Jocko87]

1 hour ago, stringer bell said:

I thought he could have caught one or both of the balls that went over his head. It takes more than a great arm to be a great outfielder. If that's all it takes, Cuddy would have had gold gloves to go along with his silver bats.

I thought they were close and I can see both sides of going hard for the catch.  When the arm has a good chance to hold to a single or throw someone out it might be a better play than a bad miss that becomes a triple.  Does Kepler catch those balls comfortably?  Serious question, I don't know. 

[Fat Calvin]

3 hours ago, terrydactyls said:

Hell, I'm 76 and don't have kids or grandkids, and I still get embarrassing when the Twins get a walk-off win.

Hell, I'm 86 and, and, and, what's the topic again?

[VivaBomboRivera!]

We have not been this loaded with pitching since the '60s.

The Manfred Man must go.

That is all.

[Melissa]

7 hours ago, Jocko87 said:

I thought they were close and I can see both sides of going hard for the catch.  When the arm has a good chance to hold to a single or throw someone out it might be a better play than a bad miss that becomes a triple.  Does Kepler catch those balls comfortably?  Serious question, I don't know. 

I wondered the same thing about Kep, Jocko. Hard to tell from watching on TV. I think people (including me) tend to undervalue Max’s defense and its impact.

[Melissa]

I don’t get the dislike of Solano in some of these comments. He’s kept the line moving at some key points and provided good defense at first. Gotta have competent backups to win these close games.