Twins Video
Box Score
Sonny Gray: 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
Home Runs: Carlos Correa (16), Edouard Julien (11), Max Kepler (21)
Top 3 WPA: Sonny Gray (.245), Matt Wallner (.200), Ryan Jeffers (.068)
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)
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Dane Dunning had nothing. He may have had less than nothing. The righty couldn’t find the strike zone if a maitre'd was there to guide him. He walked four in the inning, nearly escaping his mess by coaxing a double play from Carlos Correa, but he couldn’t quite fool Matt Wallner around; the rookie lashed a triple into the right field corner, unloading the bases with one fiery smash. Ryan Jeffers knocked in Wallner with a single.
Mitch Garver shaved off a run with a solo shot in the following frame—he will return a crucial player in our plot tonight—but Gray suffered no other damage, holding the lead intact after two.
The Twins hopped on Dunning once again. They loaded the bases once again, putting themselves in a prime position to crack the game in half. They didn’t do it. Joey Gallo went down looking after seeing a controversial (read: bad) strike call place him down 0-2. Gallo then offered a few selections from George Carlin’s famous 7 Words, and umpire Carlos Torres promptly sent him home for the night.
The strike zone had been nebulous. Torres bailed out Dunning’s shakiness with some optimistic strike calls, pushing quite a few Twins fans to openly lament the unnecessary gifts. Rocco Baldelli soon also retired for the night when his discussion with Torres didn’t stop rising in intensity.
The ejection was Baldelli’s 16th in his career.
The emotions of the night were far from lowering, though. When Gray faced Garver again in the 3rd, the plate appearance lasted one pitch: a fastball directly off the wallet. Jeffers had been smoked earlier in the game, perhaps as a response to his pimped go-ahead homer on Thursday, and it seemed that Gray’s choice to plunk Texas’ catcher—and a former Twin—was a response to the Jeffers beaning. The benches cleared. Not much came of it.
And that was the peak of action for a while. Dunning found some semblance of control, enough to carry him through four sloppy frames with no further runs.
Gray, on the other hand, was stellar. He didn’t miss as many bats as usual; instead, the veteran opted for subtle, quiet contact as his fielders worked harder than he did. The Rangers did place runners on against him—Gray wasn’t perfectly sharp—but they all walked back to the dugout with frowning demeanors. Gray threw 81 pitches.
Oh, but the Twins weren’t done scoring runs. It seemed like they were. Their bats served up five empty innings, appearing to slip into a lethargic state perfectly ok with their first inning work. The 7th turned, though, as Correa cracked a homer to kick off the scoring, eventually leading to RBI knocks from Jeffers (he may need armor tomorrow), and Donovan Solano. Edouard Julien launched a three-run homer. And so on.
The Rangers put in a position player in the 8th. And so on.
Cole Sands relieved Gray—that’s how safe Jayce Tingler felt with his nine-run lead—and all the Rangers could muster was an unearned run to soften the loss ever so slightly.
Notes:
Rocco Baldelli's 16th ejection moved him into a tie for 111th all-time.
Max Kepler's 21 home runs is the second-most he's hit in a season, 15 behind his 2019 year.
Saturday was the 4th time Sonny Gray pitched seven frames in a game in 2023.
Carlos Correa's on-base streak extended to 16 games.
Post-Game Interview:
What’s Next?
The Twins and Rangers will play the third game of their series on Saturday. Joe Ryan will come off the IL to make his first start since August 2nd. Max Scherzer will take Target Field’s mound for the first time since September 15th, 2014, when the future Hall-of-Famer was a Tiger. First pitch is at 6:15 PM.
Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet
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