The Moment: It was 3-0 in the favor of Detroit as late as the 6th inning. After some unfortunate walks and some lazy bloops and bleeders, the Twins tied the game up. It was a classic “Twins hit” game, wherein the Twins seemed as though they were unduly lucky to get to where they were. Eddie Rosario, however, made his own luck, and jacked a 3 run tater to double the Twins’ score and give the home side a lead they would not relinquish.
The Hero: Do you remember this time last year, when it seemed like Eddie Rosario was the worst player in baseball? Not good at the plate, and just lazy in the field? Well, that has all changed. He is hustling in the field, and while he is off to a bit of a slow start, the heat is definitely off of him as he sorts out his early season slump. His problem to date has been an inability to hit for any power, but an opposite field dinger at the right time may be pulling him from his malaise. Now, if only he can spread that to a well regarded teammate of his.
The Goat: Joe Jiminez is a top prospect for the Tigers, but for right now, he may be best known as the guy who helped Eddie Rosario get his season going.
The Soundtrack: Dear Mr. Fantasy – Traffic. This is just an edited version. The full version would be longer than tonight’s game.
The Story: It looked like we were in for another depressing, struggle filled game for the Twins at the plate. They haven’t hit, they were facing Justin Verlander, who had never lost at Target Field, and the cycle looked like it was continuing. But then, Verlander started walking guys. There were a couple of very suspect base hits followed by a pitching change. Eddie Rosario took advantage of a young pitcher out of his element, and voila, the Twins are back at .500.
The Twins only had 5 hits, so there wasn’t much good to discuss on offense. This was a win that expressed the importance of sequencing as much as anything else. It takes wins like this for teams to realize that luck doesn’t always tilt against them, and realize they have a chance to win every time out. After last season, they can be forgiven for having shaken confidence.
Hector Santiago was once again quite passable. He struck out 6 and allowed 7 hits and a James McCann home run for the second time this season, and was behind for most of the game. He settled down, leveraged his defense once again, and kept the Twins in the game. There is too long a track record not to be trepidatious every time he goes out, but I can’t deny that he has been quite successful this season.
Using the Hector Santiago master plan, Brandon Kintzler worked the 9th, and in very un-closer like fashion, struck out nobody on his way to the save. Heck, in three at bat, Byron Buxton can strike out twice, but nothing from Kintzler. Weird. This win is only beneficial because the Twins have been letting their guys keep playing. That’s all they can do with Buxton as well, in order for him to get himself sorted out. Twins-Tigers on April 21st seems to be a good teaching lesson for the entire Twins experience.
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