Two Sundays, two bullpen victories—and somehow, the Minnesota Twins are making it work with what might be the world's most unlikely relief corps.
Before we dive into the action, a quick happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! Just got back from a trip to D.C. with my mom to catch the Twins play—she's now seen 10 different ballparks (though she'll never get to Metropolitan Stadium, sadly). It helps to have a baseball-obsessed son, I suppose!
Now, onto the diamond. For the second straight Sunday, the Twins trotted out their patchwork bullpen from the very first pitch—and somehow, against all logic, walked away with a win over the Guardians.
The scoring started in the top of the third when Kody Clemens ripped a double, advanced to third on a Brooks Lee single, and then sprinted home after Guardians starter Gavin Williams uncorked a wild pitch to the backstop. 1-0, Twins.
Cleveland answered quickly in the bottom half—José Ramírez (who else?) singled home Brayan Rocchio to tie it. But the Twins' second reliever of the day, Kendry Rojas, escaped a bases-loaded nightmare by getting Angel Martinez to fly out to the warning track. Huge sigh of relief.
The Twins threatened in the fourth on a Ryan Jeffers double and Austin Martin single, but a Luke Keaschall double play grounded the rally to a halt.
No matter—the fifth inning brought the fireworks. Clemens led off with another double, scored on Lee's single, and then Royce Lewis added his own double to plate Lee. After two quick outs, it looked like the rally might fizzle—until Josh Bell stepped up with a single to score Lewis. Martin then decided to join the party, driving in another run to make it 5-1, Twins.
Rojas left after some solid (if occasionally wild) work in the fifth, but reliever Travis Adams' two-out walk came back to bite him on a Daniel Schneeman RBI single. Once again, though, a Twins reliever escaped a bases-loaded jam to limit the damage. 5-2.
Cleveland kept chipping away—Chase DeLauter singled home a run in the sixth, but Anthony Banda shut down the rebellion. 5-3. DeLauter added an RBI groundout in the eighth, but the Twins' bullpen held the line once more.
It wasn't pretty. It wasn't conventional. But for the second straight Sunday, the Twins' bullpen—the one everyone loves to doubt—found a way to win.