Twins 8, Red Sox 6: Early Deficit Erased in Scrappy Fenway Win

[Matt Braun]

Image courtesy of Eric Canha-Imagn Images

Box Score
Connor Prielipp: 4 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 K
Home Runs: Byron Buxton (16), Austin Martin (2)
Top 3 WPA: Austin Martin (0.270), Anthony Banda (0.220), Byron Buxton (0.200)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs):

Payton Tolle vs Connor Prielipp. The nation hasn’t seen two young lefties this promising since John and Robert Kennedy. Acquiring the knowledge for the previous joke cost the author thousands of dollars in tuition. 

With the Twins in Boston, an opportunity arises for two squads; indeed, neither team has particularly impressed—the latter was so lukewarm, Red Sox decision-makers decided to spit the coaching staff from their mouths in April. The Twins haven’t stooped to such means, but their season remains similarly meager. Someone must succeed, though, and the victor of this game, and the series, could use the momentum and good vibes as a propeller towards future wins. 

The “promising lefties” bit concocted hours before the game ended quickly. Both starters struggled early. Prielipp allowed a flurry of runs—four of them—in the first off a series of hard-hit balls, dinky singles, and outfield-misplayed ricochets. The latter is the only way to explain a Willson Contreras triple. Hit to left-center, nonetheless. 

Evidently, the Twins were in a respondent mood. Josh Bell singled to set up Gabriel Gonzalez in his first MLB plate appearance. The youngster has made his name as a free-swinger, one who looks to push action further rather than wait for it to happen. He’ll swing 0-0, 3-0, 0-2, and everything in between. There’s no pitch he hasn’t believed he can’t hit—and in his first time in a major-league batter’s box, he walked on four pitches. 

Strange things must be abound.

With two on, Ryan Kreidler bounded a double over third baseman Caleb Durbin’s head and into the left field corner, ushering home Josh Bell. A fielding error set up Luke Keaschall with the bases loaded; he continued the assembly line with an RBI single to right. Though an Alex Jackson strikeout dampened the mood somewhat, Byron Buxton perked matters right back up with an RBI single to left, picking on the stout Durbin once more. 

Unfortunately, the “suddenly a game” game only remained in that state for one full frame, the third, before Boston struck back at Prielipp for a pair of runs in the fourth. With men on the corners, Durbin dropped down a picturesque sacrifice bunt, made even better when the lefty hurler dirted the throw to first, allowing a run to score as runners nestled home at second and third. A Jarren Duran groundout scored Boston’s sixth run of the game. 

“Unfortunately?” Well, well, well, the dramatics of the prose written in the fifth proved just that, dramatic. These Twins had more fight in them: Buxton worked a nine-pitch at-bat against reliever Justin Slaten that ended in a two-run homer for the dynamic center fielder. 

Yet, the dynamic one who was actually playing center on Friday turned out to be Austin Martin, as he also launched a two-run homer in the seventh, with this blast giving the Twins their first lead of the game.

Minnesota added on in the ninth with an RBI walk by a pinch-hitting (walking) Trevor Larnach. Though, more could have been had; the bases were loaded with no one out before and after the walk, yet the Twins scored no more. No matter: Anthony Banda remained in the game to finish his eighth inning labor, and ended matters with a scoreless frame.

Notes:

Byron Buxton is tied for second in the AL with 16 home runs. He's already tied his total from 2017 when he played 140 games and took 511 plate appearances.

Anthony Banda is scoreless in his last five outings, dropping his season ERA from 8.27 to 6.23.

Austin Martin is fourth in MLB with a .413 OBP (min 150 plate appearances.)

Post-Game Interviews:

 

What’s Next?
The Twins and Red Sox venture to Fenway again on Saturday for a 3:10 matinee. The illustrious if not road-weary TBD faces off against the recalcitrant young TBD. 

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	TOT
Gómez	11	0	36	0	13	60
Adams	0	19	0	0	29	48
Orze	19	0	0	0	14	33
Banda	0	16	0	0	14	30
Morris	16	0	10	0	0	26
Woods Richardson	18	0	0	0	0	18
Rogers	11	0	0	0	0	11
Garcia	0	0	0	0	0	0

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[GopherMike]

This team is hilarious. They look completely dead, lose Jeffers, option Royce, call up half of St. Paul, then  win four of five. 

Baseball

[GNess]

Right now the Twins are exceeding my expectations for sure. Gritty win tonight.

[Parfigliano]

6 minutes ago, GopherMike said:

This team is hilarious. They look completely dead, lose Jeffers, option Royce, call up half of St. Paul, then  win four of five. 

Baseball

Tis a cruel mistress.

[Vanimal46]

Fun game to watch. When I tuned in during the 3rd inning, I figured I would Abe Simpson circle out of the room.gif - No idea why Boston let Slaton out to dry but thanks!

Keep it going with the youth movement. Keaschall with a bounce back game. Gonzalez working the count every PA. 

[thelanges5]

Encouraging that they kept battling. Good bullpen performance. Like the team effort to pick up Prielipp. Hopefully he can flush and get back to what we saw the first five games. 

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

Rough night for Prielipp. Hope its just a hiccup and not a trend. 

Rough defense...again. 

Good 1st start for Gonzalez. Is Keaschall heating up? 

[mark allen]

bull pen wins another one

 

[DataNerd]

A couple weeks ago, it would have been hard to think of our bullpen winning games, but here we are.  I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Travis Adams has been solid, probably has pitched well enough to keep him with the big league club for the time being.  Hopefully not the guy who gets send down for Bradley

[knothole61]

4 hours ago, GopherMike said:

This team is hilarious. They look completely dead, lose Jeffers, option Royce, call up half of St. Paul, then  win four of five. 

Baseball

Twas ever thus...

[knothole61]

Random thoughts after a sweet win:

Buxton's home run crossed the river and landed in Charlestown.

Clemens pulled an 0-5 and short-armed a foul pop on the night his Dad was honored...bummer!

Fortunately for Jackson he grounded out to third in his last at bat to avoid the Golden Sombrero.

Mickey Gasper looks like someone associated with the Sacco and Vanzetti case. He really does.

Martin caught that ball at the furthest point of the Fenway outfield...nice grab, too!

Finally, this team may not be great but it's been interesting watching their evolution this season.

 

 

 

 

 

[David HK]

Woof!  Omg, their defense! 

Just caught up with the replay, and w-t-f, there's no way there should have been a 4-spot on the board.

Austin Martin, love the guy and the breakout season he's having so far, but he must NEVER be allowed in CF again, like ever.  Monster notwithstanding, he absolutely butchered those 2 plays in the 1st.  And Brooksie, come on, man.  You finally get to play the position you're meant for, and Arf...

Fortunately, the bad D proved to be contagious, and the Sox started playing Twinkie-ball, so it was great to get a win in the end, but whew!  That D gotta tighten up!

On the O side, it was terrific seeing guys tough out some at bats- but holy moley, get well soon, Ryan Jeffers, Mr. Jackson looked absolutely clueless and helpless with a bat in his hands.

*Sidebar:  having the Boston feed on, and hearing them approximate the best of Hawk Harrelson's homer-ism...  The first inning was all about the Sox playing smart baseball, the Twinkie response was all about crying over lucky bounces! 😂

[David HK]

Re:  Austin and that 'do...

Is he wearing one of these? 🤔

[Peter]

One if not the biggest win of season!!! Especially down 4-0 after first inning!!! Buxton/martin💪💪💪lee with great play at 3rd and Gonzalez with great debut!!! Bullpen is🔥🔥🔥💪💪💪huge huge huge win!!! .5 games back of wild card and 6 back of Cleveland!!! Keep winning!!! 

[CRF]

Very nice comeback win. Great to see. Never thought they'd do it after that 1st inning. The defense is just horrendous though. 

[Blyleven2011]

When a fish looks like it is dead in the water and comes back to life and swims away with a victory  ...

Comeback wins are always exciting  , too bad some viewers tuned out to do something else , for those that did they missed a great game  ...

2 homers in the same inning and with a runner on was nice to see ...

Never seen a wild pitch bounce out of play on third strike  ...

Twins Baseball is alot more exciting this year since the 2019 juiced ball season  ...

Keep spoiling us BOYS of summer ...

[Whitey333]

Nice win Twins against an injury riddled team.  Let's go for the sweep this weekend!

[JD-TWINS]

Johan Duran blew a save in Philly & Anthony Banda locked down the Sox in Boston - sweet!! 😉

Keaschall becoming a bit more consistent with the bat……….. Bell has a hit in 4 straight games. Hope he can continue to lift himself up!

The PEN hasn’t lost more games than pathetic offense in ‘26. They have stunk in a handful or more games…….. bad in as many games when they were already trailing though. They have really been piecing things together for a decent string of games now. Obviously, more talent in a couple spots would be very helpful……. Rojas or Prielipp (reduce innings) eventually…….. maybe Festa…….. SWR seems to be squarely locked into a PEN role balance of this year.

Banda has had a sub 3.50 ERA for last couple years, he’s settling in a bit ……… Gómez appears to have found something in himself …….. Morris is a bright spot. PEN is coming around!

[Jack207]

At least the Twins are fun to watch because they are playing hard. Who knows how far this takes them but I'm going to keep enjoying the games in the meantime.

[umterp23]

10 hours ago, GopherMike said:

This team is hilarious. They look completely dead, lose Jeffers, option Royce, call up half of St. Paul, then  win four of five. 

Baseball

I’m going to temper my excitement as we haven’t really been beating good to really good teams if you look at records. Now I will say that you play the schedule planned as is. Take advantage of opportunities and see what happens when you get your turn vs murderers row of division leaders well above .500 winning percentage. Take the W’s when you can. 

[Nshore]

3 hours ago, David HK said:

Re:  Austin and that 'do...

Is he wearing one of these? 🤔

If a Twins player can play, they can look like "Cousin It" on the Adams Family for all I care. 

[Nshore]

I'm not sure Keaschall is really progressing with his fielding at second base, which is concerning.  Not sure what they would do with him if he doesn't play there - he's not really an outfielder either.  Best case scenario is he ends up being a Jose Altuve type player - and they avert their eyes when the ball is hit his way.

[MMMordabito]

58 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Johan Duran blew a save in Philly & Anthony Banda locked down the Sox in Boston - sweet!! 😉

You can't blow a save when your team scores 0 runs.

[The Great Hambino]

It was nice to see the Twins on the good end of the dropped-foul-pop-up-leading-to-homer exchange

Brooks was about as productive as you can be while going 0-4 with 3 Ks, still scoring twice and making a very nice play at third

It was a fun win.  Funny how a complete lack of expectations can make for a more fun viewing experience as a fan

[Linus]

The boys battled. Prielipp has stuff but as we’ve seen with many pitchers command is more important. He will not make it in the bigs without improvement in this area. 
I find the Lee to third move very interesting. I think it’s his best position but I hope it’s part of a bigger, long term plan. 
Finally, Buck is a great leader. When GG got his first hit Buck hurries to the dugout steps to congratulate him. C4 was a talker - Buck is a leader (and I can’t wait for him to be back in center). 

[jorgenswest]

1 hour ago, JD-TWINS said:

The PEN hasn’t lost more games than pathetic offense in ‘26

 I wonder how you would characterize the offenses of the 13 AL teams that have scored fewer runs than the Twins this year.

[jorgenswest]

Lee looked good at 3B and the path for Culpepper is clear.

The bullpen is getting younger and better.

After 51 games the Twins have scored more runs than they have allowed. 

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, Nshore said:

I'm not sure Keaschall is really progressing with his fielding at second base, which is concerning.  Not sure what they would do with him if he doesn't play there - he's not really an outfielder either.  Best case scenario is he ends up being a Jose Altuve type player - and they avert their eyes when the ball is hit his way.

He isn’t progressing - tough to do when playing nearly every day and worrying about hitting a ball properly. He’s got a looong way to go to get anywhere near Altuve…….he’s a better hitter than he’s shown to date. Gotta adjust to seeing as much action he’s been exposed to early this year - physical but mainly mental fatigue.

I don’t really know what he might do in the OF. He’s fast enough. He’s aggressive to the ball. He could play some utility 2B - LF - DH - maybe blend at 1B?

I really like Luke but if he’s displaced over next 12 months, it means Team is getting better!

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, MMMordabito said:

You can't blow a save when your team scores 0 runs.

Let me rephrase - he gave up a solo HR & he took the loss in the 9th.

Clear enough?

[JD-TWINS]

54 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

Lee looked good at 3B and the path for Culpepper is clear.

The bullpen is getting younger and better.

After 51 games the Twins have scored more runs than they have allowed. 

My fingers are crossed for ‘27:

Lewis - Houston - Culpepper - Lee from 3rd to 1st………can flip Lewis & Lee at the corners……. one of them has to move to 1B, IMO …….. assuming their bats are adequate through balance of this year. Lewis huge question mark on whether he bounces back at the plate - Lee, not quite as consistent as one would hope for at the plate either.

Larnach - Lee - Clemens all drifting downward……scary with Jeffers out for long period.

Buxton - Keaschall - Martin - Kreidler all with 2 hits last night …….. nice to see!!