AJ Condon

I don't think it is still possible for Minnesota Twins fans to still doubt the skill of this years team. The Twins just recently won three out of four games against the Houston Astors to improve to 19-10 on the season.
 
The big take away from this series: pitching. The starting pitchers were feeling themselves this past series, minus Pineda, and the bullpen made work with their little time in the game. Besides the 11-0 loss in game two, this was some of the best pitching I've seen all year, and against a good Astros team.
 
Game 1
 
The first game of the series was a pitching duel between Jake Odorizzi and Justin Verlander, but Odorizzi was the one who ended up on top between the two. Verlander pitched phenomenal but gave up a home run to Ehire Adrianza, who was the last Twin starter to hit a home run this season. It took only one mistake from Verlander as the Twins took a 1-0 win in game one.
 
Odorizzi continues to deal this season improving to 3-2 on the season with a 3.34 ERA. He was able to go seven shutout innings while walking only one and giving up only four hits and striking out seven. Taylor Rogers was able to come in to throw a shutout inning with Blake Parker coming in in the ninth to pick up his sixth save.
 
Game 2
 
Not much to talk about in this game as the Twins were blanketed 11-0. Pineda had a good start to the game, but in the fifth inning and sixth innings he fell apart. He finished with five innings pitched and five runs along with nine hits and moves to 2-2 with a 6.21 ERA.The offense was no where to be seen for the Twins as they had only three hits, with the first one coming in the seventh.
 
Game 3
 
Here's where the excitement really got going. On the pitching side, we got to see Martin Perez who came into the game 3-0 with a 4.44 ERA, he improved both those categories in this game.
 
Perez was dealing from start to finish, throwing eight shutout innings and almost went into the ninth before his pitch count rose to 100 and his night was over. He gave up only four hits in the game while striking out seven to move to 4-0 on the year with a 3.41 ERA.
 
The offense also came to play today and it started with a bomb from Jonathan Schoop in the third. He drilled the ball to left field for a 465 foot home run, which was the longest by a Twin since 2017. Cruz put together a nice 2-hit game with two RBIs and a run to go behind that.
 
Unfortunately, Trevor Hildenberger wasn't able to hold the shutout in the ninth as he gave up three hits and two runs. Ultimately the Twins were able to take game three 6-2, and made it so they were in a position to take this series from the Astros
 
Game 4
 
Jose Berrios was the starter for the series finale and was able to pick up his fourth win of the season behind another strong performance with help from the offense. Berrios had a little rough start to the game giving up a home run in the first inning to Alex Bregman, and giving up back-to-back hits to lead off the third. After he was able to strike out the next batter, get a fly out and strike out the final batter to get out of the pickle and find his groove.
 
Counting those three outs, he was able to retire 12 straight Astros until his final inning in the seventh. He finished with seven innings, two runs, seven hits and five strikeouts to improve to 4-1 with a 2.91 ERA. Ryne Harper and Trevor May were both able to throw one shutout inning to secure the win.
 
The bottom of the lineup really came to play today getting seven hits from the bottom four guys. Jorge Polanco and Byron Buxton were able to both hit a triple today and Jason Castro had a double and a home run along with four RBIs. The Twins took the series finale 8-2 behind a strong fourth inning.
 
Overall
 
The pitching this series was very solid from both the starters and the bullpen, obviously minus game two, but picking up a 1-0 shutout against Verlander was huge, and winning the series three games to one shows that we don't just beat bad teams. Odorizzi and Perez have shown to be good second and third starters but Gibson and Pineda continue to struggle.
 
Eddie Rosario continues to struggle at the plate as he went 0-14 this series and his average dropped to .223. Polanco continues to hit the ball and is leading the team with a .336 average, and Nelson Cruz is still hitting well with a .302 average.
 
What's next?
 
The Twins get right back into action tomorrow when they travel to face the New York Yankees for the first time this season. The Twins are coming into this series winning six out of their last seven, leading the AL, and having the second highest win percentage in the MLB. Hopefully they can keep their hot streak going during this next series.

After a series loss to the Houston Astros, the Minnesota Twins were able to sweep the Baltimore Orioles in another 3-game series with hot bats and solid pitching all around.
 
The Twins were finally able to get an off day after playing 12 straight games before they faced the Orioles for the second, and final time of the season. The Twins just a week prior, and were able to sweep them in a 3-game series after dropping the series against the Toronto Blue Jays. They were able to walk right through the Orioles again and move to 16-9 on the season.
 
The bats continued to stay hot and the pitching really picked up in this series from both the starters and relievers.
 
It started off with Martin Perez on Friday throwing six solid innings while only giving up one run on six hits and striking out four. The bullpen combined for three shutout innings with four strikeouts and only two hits to secure Perez's third win of the season.
 
Just like the last time the Twins played the Orioles, the bats were rolling for the good guys. The Twins got right to work in the first inning, going back-to-back-to-back home runs from Nelson Cruz, Eddie Rosario (of course), and C.J. Cron. Max Kepler was able to add a home run later in the game, and Cruz hit his second of the game to extend the lead to 6-0. The Orioles were able to score one, but the Twins got the win 6-1 in the first game of the series.
 
Jose Berrios was given the start in game two and went straight to work. He dealt six innings and struck out eight, but did give up eight hits which only led to two runs. The bullpen, again, came in and threw three shutout innings, this time striking out six and only giving up one hit. Berrios was able to move to 4-1 and continues to be the ace that the Twins needed.
 
As you can probably guess, more home runs were hit by the good guys in this game as well. This time it was Kepler who picked up the multi-home run game as he homered in back-to-back games. Cron, Marwin Gonzalez, and Jason Castro were all able to go yard in last night's game propelling the Twins to a 9-2 victory.
 
In the series finale, Kyle Gibson was lined up to close out the Orioles, and he did exactly that. He was able to pick up his second win of the season, both of them coming against the Orioles, with a very solid outing. He went seven innings and gave up just three hits and one run while striking out six. Gibson has now gone back-to-back starts without issuing a walk and the lone run was a home run from Chris Davis in the seventh.
 
The runs weren't flowing as much this game, but Kepler, yes again, hit a home run as well as Byron Buxton getting his first of the season. The bullpen came in and did their job in two shutout innings as Blake Parker was able to pick up his fifth save of the year as the Twins got their brooms out in a 4-1 win to sweep the Orioles again.
 
Offense
 
Rosario was able to extend his team high in home runs this series getting his 11th of the season. Max Kepler hit four home runs this series and now has seven on the season. Jorge Polanco was a little cold this series (2-13) but is still batting .337. The teams OPS is still very high sitting at .847
 
Pitching
 
Twins starters have now gone at least five innings in 14 of the last 15 starts which has been very helpful for the bullpen with how many games they've had/ still have with little rest. The bullpen threw a combined eight shutout innings throughout this series and the starting pitchers only gave up four runs in 19 innings.
 
What's next?
 
The Twins stay at home for a 4-game series with the Astros, who are finishing up a series with the Cleveland Indians tonight. Hopefully this series can go better for the Twins, and they can keep up the pitching and hitting. They then travel to New York to face the Yankees for the first time this season in a 3-game series.

The Minnesota Twins were able to respond well after a series loss to the Blue Jays with a 3-game sweep against the Orioles, but were only able to grab one game against one of the league's top teams, the Houston Astros.
 
Going into this series, all I wanted from the Twins was to win one out of the three games this series, and I knew it wasn't going to be the third game when I saw the pitching matchups: TBD vs Justin Verlander. That meant they needed to take one of the first two, and they did exactly that.
 
Jake Odorizzi was able to pick up his second win of the season, and second straight, in a 9-5 win on Monday. Odorizzi dealt 5.2 innings, giving up only two runs on eight hits and no walks. He moved to 2-2 with a 4.37 ERA in five appearances on the season.
 
Unfortunately, the bullpen wasn't too clean in their relief. Ryne Harper came in for the seventh inning, but gave up a 3-run bomb to Carlos Correa. Adalberto Mejia and Blake Parker were both able to come in and throw shutout innings to close the game off.
 
Polanco was able to have himself a night going 4-5 with four RBIs, including one home run. The Twins racked up 12 hits plus two runs late to help seal the win and take the first game of the series, which was also the first game the Astros have lost at home this year.
 
The next two games of the series got out of hand, lacked offensive, and included struggles from both the starting pitchers and the bullpen. They allowed 17 runs total while only scoring five.
 
The Twins got up 3-0 early in the first game thanks to another Eddie Rosario 3-run home run in the top of the first, but could only manage to score one more run the entire game. Michael Pineda was the starter for this game and went 5.1 innings but gave up four runs on eight hits and two walks. He, luckily, didn't pick up a loss because the Twins were able to tie the game seventh.
 
The tie didn't last long as the bullpen wasn't able to keep the game close. Again in the seventh, the Twins bullpen gave up runs, this time only being two but coming from Trevor Hildenberger and thanks to a couple errors, four runs were scored in the eighth against Tyler Duffey. The twins ultimately lost game two 10-4.
 
We saw two of our relievers surrender their first runs of the year. Harper gave up three runs in game one and Hildenberger give up two runs in game two. The bullpen was again pretty unreliable in these first two games, but probably wasn't the only reason for the loss in game two.
 
The series finale was tonight and Verlander continued to hurt the Twins, pitching eight innings, striking out eight and only giving up four hits and one run. The one run was a home run off the hot hand of Polanco, but was the sole run for the Twins tonight.
 
Before the game, the Twins made some roster moves to get a starter for tonight and another reliever. The two guys brought up, Kohl Stewart and Fernando Romero were the only two pitchers the Twins had to send out tonight. Stewart dealt six innings, but gave up five runs on eight hits and three walks, and Romero finished the game with two innings and two runs. With this transaction, they sent down Tyler Duffey and Jake Cave.
 
I am actually content with how the Twins played this series finale. They've had to play 12 games in just as many days and were playing against the Astros ace. The Twins were able to give some guys the night off in the field and in the bullpen. Byron Buxton, Mitch Garver, and Jonathan Schoop were all given the night off as well as the whole bullpen, besides Romero who we just called up.
 
Like I said at the beginning, going into the series, I wanted one win out of this series and I got that. However, I would've liked to see a better performance from the pitchers. The Twins face the Orioles again, but this time at home in what hopefully is another bounce back series both for the offense and pitchers.
 
After this series the Twins moved to 13-9 but still have a half game lead on the Cleveland Indians for the lead in the A.L. Central.
 
The Twins busy schedule isn't even close to over after they get one off day tomorrow, they play 13 straight days with seven being home and six being on the road.

The Minnesota Twins were able to respond well after a series loss to the Blue Jays with a 3-game sweep against the Orioles, but were only able to grab one game against one of the league's top teams, the Houston Astros.
 
Going into this series, all I wanted from the Twins was to win one out of the three games this series, and I knew it wasn't going to be the third game when I saw the pitching matchups: TBD vs Justin Verlander. That meant they needed to take one of the first two, and they did exactly that.
 
Jake Odorizzi was able to pick up his second win of the season, and second straight, in a 9-5 win on Monday. Odorizzi dealt 5.2 innings, giving up only two runs on eight hits and no walks. He moved to 2-2 with a 4.37 ERA in five appearances on the season.
 
Unfortunately, the bullpen wasn't too clean in their relief. Ryne Harper came in for the seventh inning, but gave up a 3-run bomb to Carlos Correa. Adalberto Mejia and Blake Parker were both able to come in and throw shutout innings to close the game off.
 
Polanco was able to have himself a night going 4-5 with four RBIs, including one home run. The Twins racked up 12 hits plus two runs late to help seal the win and take the first game of the series, which was also the first game the Astros have lost at home this year.
 
The next two games of the series got out of hand, lacked offensive, and included struggles from both the starting pitchers and the bullpen. They allowed 17 runs total while only scoring five.
 
The Twins got up 3-0 early in the first game thanks to another Eddie Rosario 3-run home run in the top of the first, but could only manage to score one more run the entire game. Michael Pineda was the starter for this game and went 5.1 innings but gave up four runs on eight hits and two walks. He, luckily, didn't pick up a loss because the Twins were able to tie the game seventh.
 
The tie didn't last long as the bullpen wasn't able to keep the game close. Again in the seventh, the Twins bullpen gave up runs, this time only being two but coming from Trevor Hildenberger and thanks to a couple errors, four runs were scored in the eighth against Tyler Duffey. The twins ultimately lost game two 10-4.
 
We saw two of our relievers surrender their first runs of the year. Harper gave up three runs in game one and Hildenberger give up two runs in game two. The bullpen was again pretty unreliable in these first two games, but probably wasn't the only reason for the loss in game two.
 
The series finale was tonight and Verlander continued to hurt the Twins, pitching eight innings, striking out eight and only giving up four hits and one run. The one run was a home run off the hot hand of Polanco, but was the sole run for the Twins tonight.
 
Before the game, the Twins made some roster moves to get a starter for tonight and another reliever. The two guys brought up, Kohl Stewart and Fernando Romero were the only two pitchers the Twins had to send out tonight. Stewart dealt six innings, but gave up five runs on eight hits and three walks, and Romero finished the game with two innings and two runs. With this transaction, they sent down Tyler Duffey and Jake Cave.
 
I am actually content with how the Twins played this series finale. They've had to play 12 games in just as many days and were playing against the Astros ace. The Twins were able to give some guys the night off in the field and in the bullpen. Byron Buxton, Mitch Garver, and Jonathan Schoop were all given the night off as well as the whole bullpen, besides Romero who we just called up.
 
Like I said at the beginning, going into the series, I wanted one win out of this series and I got that. However, I would've liked to see a better performance from the pitchers. The Twins face the Orioles again, but this time at home in what hopefully is another bounce back series both for the offense and pitchers.
 
After this series the Twins moved to 13-9 but still have a half game lead on the Cleveland Indians for the lead in the A.L. Central.
 
The Twins busy schedule isn't even close to over after they get one off day tomorrow, they play 13 straight days with seven being home and six being on the road.

The Minnesota Twins were able to respond well after a series loss to the Blue Jays with a 3-game sweep against the Orioles, but were only able to grab one game against one of the league's top teams, the Houston Astros.
 
Going into this series, all I wanted from the Twins was to win one out of the three games this series, and I knew it wasn't going to be the third game when I saw the pitching matchups: TBD vs Justin Verlander. That meant they needed to take one of the first two, and they did exactly that.
 
Jake Odorizzi was able to pick up his second win of the season, and second straight, in a 9-5 win on Monday. Odorizzi dealt 5.2 innings, giving up only two runs on eight hits and no walks. He moved to 2-2 with a 4.37 ERA in five appearances on the season.
 
Unfortunately, the bullpen wasn't too clean in their relief. Ryne Harper came in for the seventh inning, but gave up a 3-run bomb to Carlos Correa. Adalberto Mejia and Blake Parker were both able to come in and throw shutout innings to close the game off.
 
Polanco was able to have himself a night going 4-5 with four RBIs, including one home run. The Twins racked up 12 hits plus two runs late to help seal the win and take the first game of the series, which was also the first game the Astros have lost at home this year.
 
The next two games of the series got out of hand, lacked offensive, and included struggles from both the starting pitchers and the bullpen. They allowed 17 runs total while only scoring five.
 
The Twins got up 3-0 early in the first game thanks to another Eddie Rosario 3-run home run in the top of the first, but could only manage to score one more run the entire game. Michael Pineda was the starter for this game and went 5.1 innings but gave up four runs on eight hits and two walks. He, luckily, didn't pick up a loss because the Twins were able to tie the game seventh.
 
The tie didn't last long as the bullpen wasn't able to keep the game close. Again in the seventh, the Twins bullpen gave up runs, this time only being two but coming from Trevor Hildenberger and thanks to a couple errors, four runs were scored in the eighth against Tyler Duffey. The twins ultimately lost game two 10-4.
 
We saw two of our relievers surrender their first runs of the year. Harper gave up three runs in game one and Hildenberger give up two runs in game two. The bullpen was again pretty unreliable in these first two games, but probably wasn't the only reason for the loss in game two.
 
The series finale was tonight and Verlander continued to hurt the Twins, pitching eight innings, striking out eight and only giving up four hits and one run. The one run was a home run off the hot hand of Polanco, but was the sole run for the Twins tonight.
 
Before the game, the Twins made some roster moves to get a starter for tonight and another reliever. The two guys brought up, Kohl Stewart and Fernando Romero were the only two pitchers the Twins had to send out tonight. Stewart dealt six innings, but gave up five runs on eight hits and three walks, and Romero finished the game with two innings and two runs. With this transaction, they sent down Tyler Duffey and Jake Cave.
 
I am actually content with how the Twins played this series finale. They've had to play 12 games in just as many days and were playing against the Astros ace. The Twins were able to give some guys the night off in the field and in the bullpen. Byron Buxton, Mitch Garver, and Jonathan Schoop were all given the night off as well as the whole bullpen, besides Romero who we just called up.
 
Like I said at the beginning, going into the series, I wanted one win out of this series and I got that. However, I would've liked to see a better performance from the pitchers. The Twins face the Orioles again, but this time at home in what hopefully is another bounce back series both for the offense and pitchers.
 
After this series the Twins moved to 13-9 but still have a half game lead on the Cleveland Indians for the lead in the A.L. Central.
 
The Twins busy schedule isn't even close to over after they get one off day tomorrow, they play 13 straight days with seven being home and six being on the road.

The Minnesota Twins were able to respond well after a series loss to the Blue Jays with a 3-game sweep against the Orioles, but were only able to grab one game against one of the league's top teams, the Houston Astros.
 
Going into this series, all I wanted from the Twins was to win one out of the three games this series, and I knew it wasn't going to be the third game when I saw the pitching matchups: TBD vs Justin Verlander. That meant they needed to take one of the first two, and they did exactly that.
 
Jake Odorizzi was able to pick up his second win of the season, and second straight, in a 9-5 win on Monday. Odorizzi dealt 5.2 innings, giving up only two runs on eight hits and no walks. He moved to 2-2 with a 4.37 ERA in five appearances on the season.
 
Unfortunately, the bullpen wasn't too clean in their relief. Ryne Harper came in for the seventh inning, but gave up a 3-run bomb to Carlos Correa. Adalberto Mejia and Blake Parker were both able to come in and throw shutout innings to close the game off.
 
Polanco was able to have himself a night going 4-5 with four RBIs, including one home run. The Twins racked up 12 hits plus two runs late to help seal the win and take the first game of the series, which was also the first game the Astros have lost at home this year.
 
The next two games of the series got out of hand, lacked offensive, and included struggles from both the starting pitchers and the bullpen. They allowed 17 runs total while only scoring five.
 
The Twins got up 3-0 early in the first game thanks to another Eddie Rosario 3-run home run in the top of the first, but could only manage to score one more run the entire game. Michael Pineda was the starter for this game and went 5.1 innings but gave up four runs on eight hits and two walks. He, luckily, didn't pick up a loss because the Twins were able to tie the game seventh.
 
The tie didn't last long as the bullpen wasn't able to keep the game close. Again in the seventh, the Twins bullpen gave up runs, this time only being two but coming from Trevor Hildenberger and thanks to a couple errors, four runs were scored in the eighth against Tyler Duffey. The twins ultimately lost game two 10-4.
 
We saw two of our relievers surrender their first runs of the year. Harper gave up three runs in game one and Hildenberger give up two runs in game two. The bullpen was again pretty unreliable in these first two games, but probably wasn't the only reason for the loss in game two.
 
The series finale was tonight and Verlander continued to hurt the Twins, pitching eight innings, striking out eight and only giving up four hits and one run. The one run was a home run off the hot hand of Polanco, but was the sole run for the Twins tonight.
 
Before the game, the Twins made some roster moves to get a starter for tonight and another reliever. The two guys brought up, Kohl Stewart and Fernando Romero were the only two pitchers the Twins had to send out tonight. Stewart dealt six innings, but gave up five runs on eight hits and three walks, and Romero finished the game with two innings and two runs. With this transaction, they sent down Tyler Duffey and Jake Cave.
 
I am actually content with how the Twins played this series finale. They've had to play 12 games in just as many days and were playing against the Astros ace. The Twins were able to give some guys the night off in the field and in the bullpen. Byron Buxton, Mitch Garver, and Jonathan Schoop were all given the night off as well as the whole bullpen, besides Romero who we just called up.
 
Like I said at the beginning, going into the series, I wanted one win out of this series and I got that. However, I would've liked to see a better performance from the pitchers. The Twins face the Orioles again, but this time at home in what hopefully is another bounce back series both for the offense and pitchers.
 
After this series the Twins moved to 13-9 but still have a half game lead on the Cleveland Indians for the lead in the A.L. Central.
 
The Twins busy schedule isn't even close to over after they get one off day tomorrow, they play 13 straight days with seven being home and six being on the road.

The Minnesota Twins dropped to 8-6 on the season and lose another close game due to a starting pitcher not being able to finish his start, and the bullpen continuing to be shaky.
 
Jorge Polanco was able to get the game going by hitting a solo shot in the third inning and has his average sitting at .415. The Twins hit a total of three home runs tonight with Eddie Rosario adding a 3-run shot in the sixth (another time the Twins answer after allowing runs in the half inning before) and Marwin Gonzalez opening up the ninth with a solo shot to get it within one.
 
It was great seeing the power in the lineup tonight, but besides the homeruns, we only had one other extra base hit and it didn't even matter because C.J. Cron was thrown out at home to end the game on it. On that call to send him, it's tricky to tell if that was the right call. If you ask me, I like it and here's why:
 
First off, I like that the Twins are being aggressive on the base paths. Obviously, Cron is one of the only players currently on the roster that probably gets thrown out there (Cruz being the other) but being aggressive on the base paths will be the reason we win games this year instead of losing them. Also, I know Kepler was on a hitting streak going into the game and it might've been extended while giving the Twins a win, honestly, I don't want the game in his hands. Even with his hit streak, he's only batting .259 on the season. Also, something I didn't notice right away, Byron Buxton ended up on third base on that play. The guy is freakishly fast, and even though the game ended, what heads up baseball that was to get there.
 
However, the game shouldn't have come down to that in the first place because, unfortunately, the bats weren't enough tonight with how our pitchers performed. Kyle Gibson was the starter for this game and pitched a solid five innings, but apparently, that seems to be his max. Through five innings, Gibson had only given up one hit and two walks. This, however, was his third start of the season, but was only the first time making it farther than 4.2 innings. He ended up finishing with 5.1 innings with 4 earned runs, but didn't get the loss. Ryne Harper tried to come in and finish off the fifth but ended up allowing two hits, which fell onto Gibson for ER. Trevor May came in for the next inning and struggled as well giving up two ER on one hit and two walks in .2 of an inning. Trevor Hildenberger came in to try and finish the seventh but gave up one hit to score the sixth run, but was able to get out of the inning on poor base running by the Jays. Tyler Duffey then came in to make his season debut and pitched two shutout innings with one hit and one walk.
 
Pitching hasn't been a small issue, either. Our starting rotation has hurt our bullpen this year. Jose Berrios has been our only consistent starter who can go more than six innings and not blow it at the end of his start. Jake Odorizzi has started three games and has only pitched 11.1 innings, Gibson in his three starts has 14.2 innings, and Pineda (who has an excuse) has 15 innings in three starts. Berrios, in four starts, has 27.1 innings. Especially with how heavy our schedule is right now, we need to rely on our starters to give us a quality six innings through this long stretch.
 
The Twins have dropped the first two games in this series when both games were winnable and move to 8-6 with two games left in the series. I'd hope that they can turn this around and tie this series before going on the road to face the Orioles.
 
This is my first blog about the Twins, but I will try and write as often as I can. Let me know what you think and I hope you continue reading!