Twins 9, Athletics 6: Twins Build Big Lead, Hold On for Much-Needed Win

[Matthew Taylor]

Image courtesy of Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Zebby Matthews 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 7 K, 1 BB (105 pitches, 70 strikes)
HR: Ryan Kreidler (6)
Top 3 WPA: Matthews 0.21, Bell 0.13, Kreidler 0.11
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs):
 

After being swept by the San Diego Padres over the weekend, Minnesota saw its playoff odds cut in half, dropping from around 40% to just 20%, according to FanGraphs. (Baseball Prospectus put them even lower Monday morning—down around 12%.) With their postseason hopes hanging in the balance, the Twins traveled to West Sacramento to face an Athletics team with the worst record in the American League. The last time the Twins were swept, they responded by sweeping the Atlanta Braves. This time, they were hoping for a similar rebound.

Minnesota ran into a struggling Jeffrey Springs, who came in with a 6.02 ERA. Considering the Twins' season-long struggles against left-handed pitching, there was still plenty of reason to wonder which offense would show up, but those concerns were quickly put to rest. Byron Buxton drew a walk to start a first-inning rally. Ryan Jeffers followed with a single, and Josh Bell continued his excellent month of August by ripping a double off the top of the wall in left-center. The ball missed being a home run by roughly an inch, but it still brought Buxton home to give the Twins an early 1-0 lead.

The Twins added another run in the third inning when Bell grounded into a fielder's choice, bringing home Buxton. Minnesota then really began to pull away in the fourth, when Ryan Kreidler launched a solo home run, his sixth of the season and first since June 28. A massive hit for the hometown kid who had lots of friends and family at the game. Kody Clemens followed with an RBI single, extending the lead to 4-1 and chasing Springs.

The Twins broke the game open in the sixth inning after loading the bases and putting pressure on the A's bullpen. Luke Keaschall came through with a two-run double down the third-base line, giving Minnesota a 6-1 lead. Bell followed with a sacrifice fly for his third RBI of the night. It was Bell's team-leading 17th RBI of August and brought him to 80 on the season, continuing what has been an impressive month at the plate for the switch hitter.

Minnesota kept its foot on the gas into the late innings. In the eighth, Clemens picked up another RBI single, scoring Buxton and giving the center fielder four runs scored on the night. Buxton went 3-for-4 in what was a massive game as he had been struggling mightily since returning from the injured list two weeks ago. A couple batters later, Kaelen Culpepper added an RBI single to cap a four-hit night and push his batting average to .340 on the season, an impressive start to his young major-league career.

By the time the night was over, the Twins had collected 15 hits and scored nine runs, with every batter in the starting lineup recording at least one hit. It was the kind of offensive performance that has been frustratingly elusive of late, making it even more encouraging to see Minnesota put everything together.

While the offense stole the show, Zebby Matthews quietly delivered one of his best outings of the season. Matthews didn't need to be great to win, but he was, anyway, tossing seven innings and allowing just one earned run (on an infield single) and striking out seven. He generated 23 swings and misses, a season high, and followed up another solid start with a second straight strong outing. That offers some encouraging signs of consistency from a pitcher who hasn't been able to find much of it this season.

Yoendrys Gómez was called upon to close out the game in a non-save opportunity, having not pitched since August 19. After getting two quick outs, however, Gómez ran into trouble. A single and a walk put two runners on. Back-to-back-to-back doubles from Jeff McNeil, Zack Gelof and Lawrence Butler suddenly turned a 9-1 game into a 9-6 contest.

What looked like an opportunity to give the back end of the bullpen a much-needed night off quickly became a somewhat sticky situation. The Twins were forced to bring in Andrew Morris to record the final out, and he did just that (on one single pitch), securing the 9-6 victory.

It wasn't the clean finish the Twins envisioned when they built an eight-run lead, but the important part was getting the win. After a weekend in San Diego that threatened to derail their season, the Twins got exactly the kind of offensive response they needed. Minnesota improved to 64-68 on the season and, with the Guardians also winning, remains two games behind Cleveland for the third and final American League Wild Card spot. The White Sox lost 11-2 to the Rangers, meanwhile, bringing the Twins to within 4.5 games of first place in the AL Central.

Now they need to do it again.

What's Next

The Twins will look to take the series on Tuesday against Athletics rookie Gage Jump. Minnesota will send Taj Bradley to the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 8:40 p.m. Central.

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Chart

	THUR	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TOT
Adams	0	17	0	34	0	51
Nance	0	0	27	0	16	43
Rogers	0	11	0	15	0	26
Morris	0	0	19	0	1	20
Gomez	0	0	0	0	20	20
Hoffman	0	0	0	17	0	17
Funderburk	0	0	0	17	0	17
Minter	0	0	8	0	0	8

 

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[Parfigliano]

Hella BP game again.

[RpR]

[ashbury]

I attended the game tonight and recommend the ballpark to anyone who has a hankering to watch major leaguers in a minor-league setting.  Food options in particular are minor-league (at major-league prices).  But seats at $40 just behind 3rd base are perhaps the best bargain in MLB. You can pay even less and still have good seats in such an intimate ballpark.

Oh, and a fun game to watch in person.  I should have been more nervous in the 9th but I wasn't - it's only a game!

[TCanWins]

Article credits an extra ER to Gomez when Nance loaded the bases and gave up 1 on a sac fly in the 8th and got himself out of trouble, meaning it was 9-2 going into the 9th, but other than that, a good summary.

Gomez needs to pitch more often, let's stick to 3 games in a row 😆

[Peter]

Huge huge huge much needed win!!!

[Patzky]

4 hours ago, TCanWins said:

Article credits an extra ER to Gomez when Nance loaded the bases and gave up 1 on a sac fly in the 8th and got himself out of trouble, meaning it was 9-2 going into the 9th, but other than that, a good summary.

Gomez needs to pitch more often, let's stick to 3 games in a row 😆

I knew they'd pitch him to shake off the rust. Classic closer in a non save situation. Hard to believe he was one strike away from zilch. Such is baseball, we've been in the giving end of that before. Save some of that pen for Prielipp!

[jmlease1]

Impressive offensive showing and a good night from Zebby. Gomez blowing up is really the only black mark.

Culpepper sure is showing why he was a top prospect, eh? Pretty nice start to his time in MLB and he's settled in pretty well on defense too. I expect pitchers will start adjusting to him soon, so we'll see how he responds to changes in approach and they try to attack him in different ways. Really the only "flaw" in his game right now is a little too much aggression; you'd like to see him grabbing a couple more walks, but it's hard to complain about his patience at the plate when he's hitting .340. But his RH bat is exactly what we need to help us keep from getting pushed around by some mediocre LHP.

Zebby wasn't exactly facing a murderer's row out there, but he still did the job and mowed them down. Very nice to see him be efficient enough to get through 7, and not give up cheap homers in that bandbox. It'll be interesting to see how he finishes the season, but the Twins really needed that good start.

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

Culpepper! Future's looking pretty bright. Only the third Twin to have two 3-hit games in the first 14 games of his career. One, Kirby Puckett (!!!). Two...Brian Dinkelman. Here's hoping Pep's career trajectory is closer to Kirby's.

[90stwinskid]

Good for Zebby and KC.

Now, to quote Herb Brooks from Miracle: "Again."

Post-deadline: 8-11

Overall: 64-68

[mikelink45]

Great to win, but thanks to the A's for giving us a breather with a batting practice pitcher (the lowest era of the four pitchers that they used was 6.08.  Plus a nice minor league lineup.  We should win again today - thanks to Zebby for giving us a great seven.

Culpepper is doing so great it makes me wish that we called up another prospect. 

[Nashvilletwin]

Absolutely a nice win - the kind that are necessary this time of year.  We needed to take care of business and we did last night. Just like we need to do today and tomorrow. 

But let’s not make more of it than we should. It looked like the Twins were playing an American Legion team in an American Legion park.

[JD-TWINS]

3 hours ago, Patzky said:

I knew they'd pitch him to shake off the rust. Classic closer in a non save situation. Hard to believe he was one strike away from zilch. Such is baseball, we've been in the giving end of that before. Save some of that pen for Prielipp!

How about throwing a Slider to START the AB, once!! 3 straight guys (I believe) swung at and hit first pitch fastballs, UP. Gotta move the ball or change the pitch - he looked brutal after things got going for the A’s.

[umterp23]

Baseball has a funny way of working itself out. We need wins to stay in the playoff race. You play the scheduled laid out for you so we better win these types of games. Culpepper if you look beyond the hits last night for some more baseball can be funny and cruel. His four hits the off the bat mph were all 86 or less including a 67.8 fly ball over 3rd basemen, can’t call that a line drive. Jeffers smokes one 105.3 straight to CF for an out. Hit’em where they ain’t as my dad would say back the day. 
 

the dream of playoff baseball continues

[jmlease1]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

Great to win, but thanks to the A's for giving us a breather with a batting practice pitcher (the lowest era of the four pitchers that they used was 6.08.  Plus a nice minor league lineup.  We should win again today - thanks to Zebby for giving us a great seven.

Culpepper is doing so great it makes me wish that we called up another prospect. 

I will say, I can understand what the A's see in Kade Morris. His change made the Twins hitter look silly for a bit, even if he couldn't sustain it. Guys were just swinging right over it. Does he have enough command to really make a go of it? Not yet, but he was at least interesting.

[MMMordabito]

4 hours ago, Peter said:

Huge huge huge much needed win!!!

[thelanges5]

If the Royals can win eight in a row, surely the Twins can, right? They should just do that.

[Saxophone Joe]

We are battle tested! Since July 5 (Yankees series), we have to be the only team in MLB that doesn't have a win of over 4 runs. 

[Church of Kreidler]

And to think, I nearly played computer games instead of watching! Glad I didn't miss Kreidler's homer - the man is indispensable to this team! And now, let us pray...

[Riverbrian]

5 hours ago, 90stwinskid said:

Good for Zebby and KC.

Now, to quote Herb Brooks from Miracle: "Again."

Post-deadline: 8-11

Overall: 64-68

On July 28

The Twins were 54-54 with 54 games left to go. 

The ole' adage... Every Teams wins 54 and every team loses 54... It's the other 54 games that matter. 

We are 10-14 in those games that matter. 

Nothing a 15 game winning streak won't cure. 

[MapleGroveTwinsFan]

Culpepper .340/.382/.480 remember when people said you have to dominant in the minors before being called up?