Game Recap: Twins 8, Cleveland 2

Box Score

J.A. Happ: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K (65.7% strikes)

Homeruns: Simmons (3), Donaldson (11), Cruz (17)

Top 3 WPA:

Win Probability Chart (via Fangraphs)

Happ First Quality Start Since April 28th

It’s been an up and (mostly) down year for Happ but the lefty was dealing today en route to his fourth victory on the season. Originally slated to face the White Sox on Monday, who slaughter left-handed pitching, he was bumped up a day to face a much less powerful Cleveland team. Turned out to be a smart move as Happ struck out his second most batters of the season by living on the edge of the strike zone.

His lone mistake was to former Twins Catcher, Rene Rivera, when he left a 91 mile per hour fastball middle-middle on an 0-2 count.

Whether you still believe in the 2021 Twins or believe them to be sellers, Happ will need more strong outings like the one he had today to be of value to the Club. Speaking of, one way or another, providing value to the Club...Tyler Duffey came in and pitched a scoreless seventh inning lowering his June ERA to 2.00 but has yet to have the strikeout numbers he boasted over the last two seasons. Hey, if you're getting outs then who cares how you do it but worth noting his strikeout numbers remain down despite a significant improvement from May to June. Finally, Caleb Thielbar came on in the 8th to pitch two scoreless, hitless innings to seal the victory for the Twins.

Twins Offense Blasts Off

Andrelton Simmons ignited the Bomba Squad with a two-run homerun to the left field bleachers in the second, which was followed up with Donaldson and Cruz second deck, no-doubters in the third and fourth, respectively.

Homeruns accounted for three of the seven hits and six of the eight runs on the day, while the Cleveland pitching staff helped the Twins by walking eight base runners. Of those eight walks, you might be surprised that Miguel Sańo had two free passes on the day AND didn’t strike out!

In all, rookie outfielder Gilbert Celestino, was the only Twins batter to not reach base today while Cruz and Arraez were the only other Twins to not reach base twice.

Bullpen Usage Chart

The Twins will continue facing AL Central foes for their next 14 games heading into the All-Star Break on Monday, July 12th. If there are still those of you out there that believe in this club, the Twins likely need to go at least 10-4 to while getting within single digits of the division lead.