Twin Magic: Minnesota stays hot, rolls over Rays for sixth straight victory
Take a look around the league with Big League Stew’s daily wrap up. We’ll hit on all of the biggest moments from the day that you may have missed, while providing highlights, photos and interesting stats.
Look out, American League. The Minnesota Twins are charging hard and looking to snap their four-year postseason drought.
After being swept by the Yankees in New York last week, the Twins have rattled off six straight road victories against AL wild-card contenders. It started with a dominant four-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend. It’s continuing now at Tropicana Field, where they won for the second straight day, 5-3.
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The Twins had to overcome one of the AL’s most dominant pitchers, Chris Archer, in order to claim victory. Archer was coming off a one-hit, 11-strikeout shutout of the Houston Astros. Here, he struck out 12 over six-plus innings, but the Twins mixed in four runs on nine hits.
Eduardo Escobar was the offensive star, homering off Archer in the sixth and reliever Brandon Gomes in the eighth. He has seven on the season. Joe Mauer also had a big game, collecting three hits. Rookies Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano were a combined 3-for-10. The Twins are now 6-0 with them in the same lineup.
With the win, the Twins moved one-half game ahead of the Texas Rangers for the second wild-card spot. They’ll go for the series sweep on Thursday night before returning home to host the first-place Astros.
SLUGGING METS WIN SIXTH STRAIGHT
Meanwhile, in the National League, the New York Mets are the hottest team around thanks largely to back-to-back series against the Rockies and Phillies. Granted, the Mets have still had to take care of business. They’ve done just that winning six straight of their own after Wednesday’s 9-4 victory in Philadelphia.
During that stretch, the Mets have outscored their opponents 64-35. That’s about a month’s worth of offense, or so it seemed earlier in the season, in a span of six games.
The long ball has been a big part of the Mets hot streak. They hit a franchise record eight in Monday’s win, but settled for one on Wednesday. Michael Cuddyer launched a two-run shot off reliever Hector Neris in the sixth inning. Cuddyer finished with three hits and three RBIs, while Yoenis Cespedes cooled off with two hits, including a mere triple. He had homered five times over his last five games.
Bartolo Colon was the beneficiary of the latest barrage, though he didn’t need much help. Colon tossed seven scoreless innings while improving to 11-11 on the season.
The Mets now own a commanding 6 1/2 game lead in the NL East after the Nationals fell 6-5 to San Diego.
BLUE JAYS UPDATE: STILL RAKING
Justin Verlander stole the headlines with his dominant one-hitter, but Wednesday had some good offensive performances as we’ve already noted.
Right at the top? The Toronto Blue Jays, who else? They rolled to another victory, 12-4 over the Rangers.
All of the usual suspects were involved, though for the most part it was for their patience, not their slugging. Troy Tulowitzki, Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista combined to go 2-for-11 with six walks and six runs scored. Bautista drew four of those walks, though each scored twice.
Edwin Encarnacion and Justin Smoak did the cleaning up, each homering and combining to drive in seven runs. That’s just what a well-oiled offensive machine does. It keeps the parts moving and the production flowing.
David Price pitched six innings of two-run ball to earn his fourth win since joining the Blue Jays. He has 13 overall. The Blue Jays, meanwhile, have 71 wins and a two game lead over the Yankees.
DODGERS WIN BEHIND THREE-HOMER INNING
After losing five staight in Oakland and Houston, the Los Angeles Dodgers are getting healthy again at the expense of the Cincinnati Reds.
Just prior to the unsuccessful start of their road trip. the Dodgers won three straight against Cincinnati at home. Now they’ve won two straight at Great American Ball Park following Wednesday’s 7-4 decision.
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After jumping out to an early 1-0 lead, the Dodgers broke things open with a five-run, three-homer fourth inning. Scott Van Slyke started it with a solo shot. A.J. Ellis followed with a two-run blast. Then Yasiel Puig capped it with a two-run tater and bat flip.
The Reds would make things interesting late, scoring three unearned runs against Brett Anderson in the seventh, but five relievers, including closer Kenley Jansen, got Los Angeles to the finish line. They’ll now aim for a three-game sweep Thursday afternoon with Zack Greinke on the hill.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
