Game of the Day Report

[Former Twins GM (Robin)]

Your beat writer hard at work.

[Former Twins GM (Robin)]

PB’s Fantasy GotD Report
Rob Stenseng, Twins beat writer for the E-thletic.
Oakland Athletics at the Minnesota Twins. Saturday, April 4th 2020. 1:10pm Target Field.

drive.google.com/open?id=1nkoJhosRhNep2Ypg522oWTk2UiNQLy9N

A’s unimpressed by Twins pitching, but Sota bats make it interesting.

The Minnesota Twins have just one more game with the A’s this year, but they will be very happy to see the Oakland charter leave town after Sunday’s game. The Twins will be looking to salvage some shred of dignity from the outing. This outcome, however, does not appear to be in the cards as the A’s in general and Nomar Mazara in particular have savaged Twins pitching throughout their early season match-ups.
The game started out well enough for the local 9 as Jeff Samardzjia worked a quick one-two-three first inning. Byron Buxton has won over Rocco Baldelli who on the advice of the bench coach inserted Buxton into the leadoff position despite Buxtons’ history of difficulty in that slot.

“Buck is ready,” Baldelli said after the game. “He feels good and really believes that this will be the year he stays healthy and contributes into the playoffs.”
Baldelli seemed right to believe it, because Buxton singled and given the green light, immediately stole second on the next pitch. Carlos Santana hit a sharp single after fouling off a couple of Michel Baez pitches. Buxton sped around third and scored the first run of the game. Polanco went down looking, then LeMahieu doubled Santano home and the DH Eddie Rosario drove LeMahieu home with another sharp single. Andrew McCutchen in center seemed overmatched early by the assignment.

“We all felt pretty good at that point. I was feeling it today.” Rosario would prove this to be unquestionably true later. Trouble and the A’s bats were just around the corner, however.

Samardzjia sent down Gurriel and Abreu, only to give a solo homer to Cano who’s been off to a shaky start and then another to JD Davis on the next at bat. Samardzjia got Brandon Crawford to fly out, but was visibly angry with his performance coming off the field.
Baez allowed a Buster Posey double in the A’s half of the second, but no damage was yet done.

Samardzjia’s control did not immediately appear to have suffered. A hard hit Yermen Mendez single was followed by soft 6-4 fielders’ choice to send Medez back to the bench and put Andrew McCutchen on first. Then came Mazara. He parked a ball in the plaza over the right field wall. This was perhaps a bit of luck as a brisk wind was blowing hard out to right. Jordan Alverez took note and followed up with a more decisive homer of his own also to deep right field.
The bullpen was quickly activitated and Baldelli took a walk out to the mound. Whatever was said did little good as Yuli Gurriel completed the hat trick by providing a homer of his own, again, deep to right. Back to back to back home runs. Samardzjia, a seasoned veteran, controlled himself on the mound, but his command was gone and after Jose Abreu hit a screaming double down the left field line, the long man Alec Mills was summoned after a very brief warm up. Cano greeted him with a 109 MPH laser to right center and despite a strong throw by Buxton, Gurriel was able to score just under the tag at the plate.
The Twins went quietly in the third, while the A’s loaded the bases but only managed to plate McCutchen on a Jose Abreu sac fly. Baez and Mills both worked quiet half innings before the Twins managed to score Carlos Sanata on a long flyball from Jorge Polanco.

Reliever Matt Bowman came in for the Twins in the sixth and after facing the minimum three was replaced by Matt Strahm with McCutchen having scored again and Nomar Mazara standing on third. Strahm managed to last the inning, but both Mazara and Yordan Alvarez reached home.
Pitching aside, the Twins bats had come to play. Undaunted by the score, 12-4 at this point. A Posey walk was followed by a Larnach double and Buxton drove one deep to right, allowing the catcher to tag and score without a throw.
Hoping to spare more damage to the bullpen, Baldelli kept Strahm in and the former starter rewarded the Twins with a clean 7th inning, though the bottom of the Twins order couldn’t add on after Brad Keller was brought on to replace Baez for the 7th inning.

Tyler Duffey had the eighth for the Twins and while he did allow three baserunners to reach, he kept his perfect ERA intact with a strike-out swinging and a 4-6-3 double play off the bat of Brandon Crawford. Brad Keller again set the Twins down in order over the eighth inning and fans began streaming out of Target field.
It was their loss. Chad Sobotka allowed one hit in his half of the ninth, to Nomar Mazara, who else? Still he was sharp and the A’s appeared compliant and ready to leave themselves. In what would prove to be something of a mistake, A’s manager Bob Melvin left Keller in for the 9th.

Carlos Santana walked and Vlad Guerrero Jr. singled putting runners on 1st and 2nd. Polanco flied out, but LeMahiue drove a ball hard back up the middle which left the bases loaded. DH Eddie Rosario was up next and with the bases loaded, Melvin pulled Keller and put in the lefthander, Jose Suarez who had been warming up from early in the inning for just this eventuality.
He squared and his first pitch was a high fastball the uncharacteristically, Rosario took to bring the count 1-0. The second pitch was another fastball up that Rosario only fouled off. He was unhappy with his offering and swung again on the next pitch, a change low and again out of the zone. Suaraz, perhaps wanting to be elsewhere, shook off the catcher twice before setting and delivering a fastball high and again out of the zone. Rosario was waiting for it. The ball left his bat at 105 mph and arched gracefully into the outfield near the first base line, before clearing the seats and bouncing deep into the concourse above right field. One of half a dozen balls to land in that section on the day, but the first grand slam. The fans who remained were treated to the trio of Twins players waiting for Rosario as he touched home to complete the 4 run rally.

Suarez managed to close the game out, but the Rosario blast breathed some life into the team which may yet carry over to Sunday’s match. The final was 12-9 and for most of the game, it wasn’t nearly so close as that. Still, if the Twins starters can settle in, there’s a lot of offense to work with. Until tomorrow Oakland.

[Former Twins GM (Robin)]

Sunday's GotD will be Rays at Rangers, a 1:35 CT start.