MINNEAPOLIS – Just as the Twins’ offense finally got healthy for the first time all year, injuries hit the starting rotation. It’s been that kind of year, but it’s also been this kind of year: they find ways to win more often than not.
The way they found on Sunday looks like it may have to be the blueprint for a while. The offense grinded its way to 12 hits and eight walks. Brooks Lee and Christian Vázquez, who entered the game with five home runs combined, hit back-to-back homers to put the Twins ahead. Joe Ryan gutted out five sometimes difficult but effective innings, and the bullpen put up four zeros en route to a 6-3 win against the Blue Jays.
“I just look at it like, our team is very complete,” said Royce Lewis, who came off the bench to collect two hits. “Obviously guys are going to get hurt. That’s part of the nature of this game unfortunately. So, how we weather the storm is the key.”
The victory snapped a three-game losing streak and cooled off the previously torrid Blue Jays, putting both teams in a three-way tie atop the American League Wild Card standings.
And if the Twins are going to stay in that position while they do without Pablo López and Zebby Matthews, both of whom went on the 15-day injured list within the past week, it will probably look like this more often than not.
They’ll need Ryan to lead the way for their rotation, their remaining starters to do their part, the bullpen to be bulletproof and the offense to be deep and pesky. And sometimes they’ll need things like homers from Lee and Vázquez.
“Sometimes you just need some guys to come up big and have a big at-bat,” said manager Rocco Baldelli. “I don’t think those guys are going up there aiming for pull-side homers. I think they just reacted and got the barrel to pitches. After good at-bats.”
No one is going to mistake this offense for the ’61 Yankees or even the Bomba Squad, but at full health, they can be a deep, persistent unit. In addition to 20 baserunners, Twins hitters saw 185 pitches over eight innings, an indicator of the kind of headache they can be for opposing pitchers.
It’s a curious contrast: the Twins don’t walk (21st in the Majors) or strike out (17th) all that often. And yet they see a lot of pitches, and get into opposing teams’ bullpens. Entering Sunday, they ranked sixth in the Majors in pitches per plate appearance, and had faced the fourth-most relief innings of any team.
They bolstered both those numbers on Sunday en route to victory.
“I think we just do a really good job early in the game with seeing pitches first time around, second time around,” said Lee. “That makes a big difference. We know the more pitches we see, the better chance we have getting into the pen.”
And then there’s the bullpen, which has been rock-solid all year but hit a bit of a speed bump on Saturday. But a day after Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran both gave up runs in a loss to the Blue Jays, Baldelli called on his top two right-handers again, and they delivered like they have throughout most of the season. Twins relievers pitched four shutout innings, allowing one hit and no walks. Jax pitched a perfect eighth, and though Duran allowed a hit in the ninth, he extended his streak of consecutive games with at least one strikeout to 19.
“I think it’s always a good thing,” Baldelli said. “You get back out there, get back on the horse. They threw good. Both of them looked really good. It’s a nice way to go into the off-day, with a win, with a lot of names that pitched that had good outings. That’s what you’re really looking for.”