The Moment: Nick Tepesch sat in the Twins bullpen, unused for 2 weeks. There was some rust to knock off. The Red Sox took advantage of the rust, and some unfortunate infield fielding to load the bases. Dustin Predroia then cleared those bases with a double. The good thing for Tepesch, if he has any regard for statistics, is that because of Jorge Polanco’s error, he was only charged with one earned run! This was all part of an 8 run 2nd inning that sent fans out the door early.
The Hero: Eventually, the Red Sox would build an insurmountable, almost laughable lead. By eventually, I mean “by the end of the inning,” but before it got there, Dustin Pedroia really opened things up with that bases loaded double.
The Goat: Too bad for Nick Tepesch that his first outing went so badly. He had some bad luck with Jorge Polanco committing an error on a play that could have ended the 2nd inning, but everything else is on him. The base hits, the walks, a home run to Chris Young. That’s all Tepesch. Too bad for him.
The Soundtrack – Save Tonight – Eagle-Eye Cherry: This song was among my many jams my freshman year of high school. I don’t know what that says about me as a high schooler.
The Story – There isn’t much of this game to discuss, really. It was over in the 8th inning, for all intents and purposes, after the Red Sox scored 8 of their 11 runs in the 2nd inning. Nick Tepesch made a long awaited start, and it went about as badly as it could have gone. Drew Rucinski, another new addition to the roster, was somewhat more effective. Well, effective enough to be left in for more than 3 innings. All that said, we saw Chris Gimenez on the mound again, which is indicative of just how worn out the squad is. Rucinski was a fresh arm to throw out there, and after he was done, they were out of fresh arms.
The Twins have elected to remove another arm from the bullpen. Michael Tonkin struggled in relief today, walking three, allowing a home run and needing to be pulled after an inning and a third. After the game, he was designated for assignment, joining Danny Santana in limbo, though it seems much more likely that a team will grab the toolsy Santana rather than Tonkin. Kyle Gibson, of course, was also sent to Rochester, completeing a wholesale roster readjustment. It seems as though the Twins are halfway done with their changes, using only placeholders until the guys they really want (Berrios, for example) can jump up to the Majors a bit more seamlessly.
One other fun aside from this game is that the Twins remain one of only three teams in the AL not to have been shut out yet this season. So that’s good! The offense is coming along.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
