8/20/23- By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on Twitter
Bats quiet on both sides early on as Ryan Borucki pitched 2 perfect innings for the Bucs in an opener role for Osvaldo Bido. History almost made for the second game in a row as both teams vying to win the rubber-match.
Twins got on the board in the 4th inning after a hard single by Donovan Solano glanced off the glove of Alika Williams. Carlos Correa followed with a bloop single that fell in no-man’s land in shallow right field, allowing Solano to advance to third. Edouard Julien hit a 1-out deep fly ball that Bryan Reynolds was just able to track down but easily deep enough for Solano to score the first run of the game. They added on in the 6th with a leadoff double by Solano and a 2-out double by Julien to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.
Dallas Keuchel followed Sonny Gray’s 5.1 perfect innings of work yesterday with 6.1 of his own before Reynolds stroked a 3-1 sinker off the wall in right field for a double. Biased opinion but he got a number of calls from home plate umpire, Laz Diaz.
Following Borucki’s clean 2 innings of work, Bido had a serviceable outing with 3.1 innings of work, allowing the two aforementioned runs but striking out 6. Jose Hernandez relieved him, notching two outs, one via the strikeout. Dauri Moreta, fresh from his IL stint, came on for the 7th inning and struck out the side. Colin Selby took the 8th inning and followed suit with 3 Ks of his own.
Minnesota, however, was dominant in relief as Griffin Jax, Caleb Thielbar and Jhoan Duran combined for 2.2 innings of 1 hit, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts to win the series.
News & Notes
- Minnesota’s pitching may have been sharp but the bats had some holes in them, striking out a combined 16 times today – 42 total in the weekend series for the free-swinging Twins.
- Bryan Reynolds managed the only two hits for the Pirates, following his Perfect Game-breaking double with a 9th inning single off Duran.
- Andrew McCutchen saw his 20-game on-base streak end with an 0-4 performance today.
- Heading back home to Pittsburgh as the Pirates face division foes, St. Louis Cardinals at 7:05PM with lefty Drew Rom set to make his MLB debut for the Cardinals and a to-be-determined starter for the Buccos. Let’s Go Bucs!
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