Fresh off the Twins first sweep in Boston in nearly a century and back in playoff position, the Twins came into Chicago looking to keep the momentum going in a battle of two (somewhat surprising) playoff spot holders. Unfortunately, the bats didn’t hold up their after yet another strong performance from Minnesota’s makeshift pitching staff.
Things were looking good to start the game. Newly minted third baseman Brooks Lee connected on his 6th homer of the season in the top of the first, putting the Twins up 1-0 on the fourth pitch of the game. Since bunting a ball into his own face, Lee is now hitting .272/.327/.442 with six home runs and 24 RBI and a 116 wRC+. The numbers aren’t anything to write home about and the expected numbers are still anticipating some regression, but Lee is looking like a real contributor after his first two seasons of well below-average performance.
Unfortunately for the Twins, there wasn’t much notable on offense from there. The Twins had a decent scoring chance in the second inning with runners on first and second and two outs, but an over-aggressive send from Ramon Borrego had Orlando Arcia out at home by a country mile. Arcia even dodged the initial tag, but the process took him far away from home plate and he wasn’t able to get back it before he was tagged. There were never really other scoring opportunities after that, with Minnesota only getting multiple baserunners once from there.
On the other side, Zebby Matthews turned in his third straight quality start since being recalled two weeks ago. It wasn’t perfect, but similar to Lee, Zebby turning into a strong contributor is a huge boon to this team that is short on high-end pitchers. International sensation Munetaka Murakami hit a ball a mile in the air which found the right field bleachers, but who among us hasn’t given up a home run to the AL home run leader?
Matthews also gave up a two run shot to catcher Drew Romo in the second inning to give the Sox their ultimate 3-1 lead, but Zebby really settled in from there. After the second inning, Matthews only allowed a single baserunner, and even the single hit he surrendered deflected off the glove of second baseman Luke Keaschall. He and newly-minted reliever Simeon Woods Richardson kept the Twins in the game, but got nothing to show for it with the bats asleep at the wheel.
The Twins still have three more chances to beat the South Siders this week, but it was a disappointing showing for the bats after all the positive momentum the past week. Back at it tomorrow!
STUDS
- Zebby Matthews: 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, BB, 6 K, 2 HR
- Reliever Simeon Woods Richardson: 2 IP, H, BB, K
- Brooks Lee: solo dong
DUDS
- Bats with RISP: 1-7 with the 1 hit resulting in an out at home
- Middle of the lineup (Martin, Bell, Clemens): combined 0-12, 2 K