Minnesota Twins: Offense sputters and Twins fall to Astros
While the Minnesota Vikings defeated a Texas based team in Texas, the Minnesota Twins couldn’t do the same against a Texas based team in Minnesota. The Twins lost 4-1 on Saturday night to the American League West leading Astros.
The Twins won on Friday night with only three hits, but they couldn’t win with five hits on Saturday. It doesn’t help that the Twins left seven men on base in the game and went 1-14 with runners in scoring position. The one hit was an infield single where no one scored. It was rough.
All the scoring was done before the fifth inning and not enough of it was done by Minnesota. Evan Gattis started the scoring in the third inning with an RBI single. In the fourth, Louis Valbuena hit a two-run double to make it 3-0. Two batters later, Jake Marisnick hit an RBI single to make it 4-0 Astros. In the bottom of the inning, Trevor Plouffe grounded into a double play that scored Eduardo Escobar, but that was all she wrote for the Twins scoring on Saturday.
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It wasn’t a good night for starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey. Pelfrey lasted 3.2 innings and gave up the four runs on seven hits while only striking out two batters. The bullpen once again was solid for the Twins with four relievers combining only to give up three hits. Brian Duensing walked two in two innings, but didn’t allow a hit and struck out three in his work in the eighth and ninth innings.
The Twins managed two extra-base hit and those both belonged to Brian Dozier. Eddie Rosario notched another outfield assist throwing out Gattis when he tried to stretch his RBI single into a double, but those are the only real highlights for the Twins in the game.
Torii Hunter looked horrid again. Hunter got to the plate four times and struck out three times and walked the other. It’s getting to the point where he shouldn’t be playing every day for the Twins.
The good news is that the Los Angeles Angels also lost on Saturday, so the Twins are solely 1.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot. The Texas Rangers currently occupy that spot, they won on Saturday.
The rubber game of the series is set for a 1:10 first pitch on Sunday from lovely Target Field.
Next: Hunter no longer is an OF option