The Moment: Mark Reynolds is known as a raw power hitter who strikes out a ton, but this season, he has stunned everyone with his home run total already at a dozen, and his batting average floating around .300. Well, you can’t get to .300 on home runs alone, and in the 3rd inning, he hit an RBI single, which turned into a 2 run single when Eddie Rosario’s throw was off the bag at third.
The Hero: Despite his name, Rockies’ starting pitcher German Marquez is actually Venezuelan. He is also a rookie, and was the better pitcher in the early game. He worked only 5 innings, but he struck out 4 and allowed only 1 run, but that was enough, and his impat was the most positive of the day.
The Goat: Ervin Santana is now on his third start in a row that was less than inspiring. He struck out only 3 in 7 innings, while walking 4 and allowing 5 runs to score. Santana’s best stat was getting through 7 innings and saving the bullpen in case Jose Berrios needed the support (he wouldn’t).
The Soundtrack: Cool Kids – Echosmith – If you are a smith who creates echoes, are you then not just a canyon? Or an empty room? An empty room isn’t what a band wants to see.
The Story – The Twins and Rockies were always going to play at noon on Thursday. It was the evening game that was a surprise. Still, Santana was pitching a day later than expected. The Twins have already had to move 4 games because of rain, so a failure to adapt is not a good excuse. He’s done it before, after all. I think it’s just that the expectations we have for Santana at this point are perhaps a little greater than he can muster. The real veteran move was giving up all those uns through the third inning, an then settling in to get all the way to the 7th.
The homer streak ended in this game, but their “scoring runs in every game” streak remains alive, thanks to a Brian Dozier RBI. The Twins offense, obviously, was a problem as they failed to make a dent against the demographically confused rookie pitcher. They only struck out 6 times, but they also had their only multihit game from Miguel Sano. He’s good, but if dingers are donged, he needs more help from his teammates.
Enough about this game. Stay tuned to this space for the second game recap.
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