Twins 20, Mariners 7: Twins Set Franchise Record With 28 Hits

Twins 20, Mariners 7

Box Score

Win Expectancy (via Fangraphs)

Eduardo Escobar led the team’s march into the record books with a five-hit game. Kennys Vargas, Jason Castro and Rosario each had four hits. The Twins tallied seven runs in both the third and seventh innings. Run differential fixed.

And Miguel Sano wasn’t even in the lineup.

For Rosario, it was the first multi-homer game of his career. That alone is impressive, but what was especially peculiar about his night is he saw just nine total pitches. That’s not odd for the ultra-aggressive Rosie, but I wonder how many times a guy has hit three homers while seeing less than 10 pitches in game.

Kyle Gibson was bad, giving up six runs on 12 hits and a whole lot of loud contact, but in a game like this, the fact that he was able to go six innings was a big plus. Am I trying to polish a turd? Yeah, I guess. But the bullpen really needed that, seeing as the team is going to play six games over the next five days.

Postgame With Rosario

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA4gAfxhF9E

Postgame With Molitor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLwXtS_076Q

Wednesday

Twins (Ervin Santana, 2.20 ERA) vs. Seattle (San Gaviglio, 2.79 ERA), 7:10 pm CT

Santana has really struggled against Robinson Cano over his career, having given up six home runs over 51 plate appearances to his countryman. Altogether, current Mariners have a .918 OPS in 166 plate appearances against Ervin. Gaviglio is a 27-year-old rookie right hander who is making his sixth start of the season. Among 346 pitchers who’ve thrown at least 20 innings this year, Gaviglio ranks 54th with a 52.9 percent groundball rate (top 15 percentile).

Bullpen Usage Report

Here's a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:

This is a new feature today. I figured since the bullpen has become such a story line this season I’d work something in that may provide insight into who may be available the next night.

If you have any ideas for information you’d like to see in these daily recaps, I’d love to hear them. Either leave a comment on here or send me a personal message. I can’t make any promises that they’ll be implemented, time is a factor in putting these together, but I will definitely see what I can do.

And, as long as we’re straying from the script, I’d just like to give a big thank you to all who have been reading these. The positive response has been overwhelming.

AL Central Standings

Twins 33-28

Cleveland 31-30 (-2)

Detroit 30-33 (-4)

Kansas City 28-34 (-5.5) *game in progress when article published

Chicago 28-35 (-6)

Make sure to check out the MLB Draft Day 2 review to learn about the eight players the Twins drafted on Tuesday.