The Moment – As you might be able to surmise by the way this game ended up, the biggest momentum turn was the first time that the Indians opened the lead. That happened in the third when Jose Ramirez dropped a two run homer over the fence to expand the lead to 5-2. 5 runs in the third inning, that was a bad sign for the home team.
The Hero – There weren’t many high leverage situations after the Ramirez home run. Effectively, his was the play that turned the game, and after that, not much else mattered.
The Goat – Adalberto Mejia had a rough start in his first outing, but I think Phil Hughes’ game Tuesday night takes the cake for “worst start of the season” He worked only 3.1 innings and gave up 5 runs (only 4 earned). He did strike out 3, but they might have been sympathy strikeouts from Cleveland.
The Soundtrack – Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol. Right now, this just seems like a terrible reminder that I need to go sit in traffic.
The Story – There were three parts of a regular baseball game, and 2 of them were not great for the Twins. The pitching, from the top down, was not effective. We already touched on Phil Hughes, but the three relevers used, Michael Tonkin, Craig Breslow and Justin Haley all gave up more runs. Haley actually worked a longer night than Hughes, with two hits, two walks, two strikeouts and two runs allowed.
Then, there was the defense.
On offense, though, the Twins didn’t really have any issues, except for that age old issue of bringing runners around to score. They mannaged 11 hits, which is pretty good, including a home run from Miguel Sano. Don’t let that fool you, though, as Sano collected 3 strikeouts as well. Even Byron Buxton didn’t strike out last night. No hits, but no strikeouts either.
Jason Castro has been slumping, but he did collect three hits in 4 at bats last night, though unfortunately, he had no runs or opportunities to drive in runs. The other hits were distributed aong all other batters, with Buxton the only starter that didn’t get a hit. The Twins have two more games with the Indians this series. The good news is that these losses aren’t THAT embarrassing, because Cleveland was in the world series last year.
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