After Friday night’s stinkfest, the Tigers looked to right the ship with their ace on the mound. That they did, with a convincing 7-2 win on a warm Saturday evening.
Said ace, Tarik Skubal, in the opinion of this humble scribe, needs to stay put. The ninth-rounder from the Pacific Northwest was surprisingly hittable in a seven-inning outing a few days ago in Cleveland. But hey, he only gave up one run, and the last time I checked, the team that gets the most hits in a game doesn’t necessarily win. But overall, Skubal’s leading the league in ERA, is striking out almost 11 every nine innings, has a WHIP under 1, all that jazz.
Joe Ryan, in his third full season in Minnesota, got the start for the visitors. He’s having a great year — don’t let the 6-6 record fool you — and he’s both cut down on the walks and upped the strikeouts for an excellent WHIP of 1.011 coming into today, a career-best. He’s also cut down the hard-hit percentage considerably from last year, and that’s reflected in a decrease in home runs allowed per nine innings (1.8 last year, 1.3 this year).
Speaking of home runs… would Javier Báez homer in his third straight game? He started the game at shortstop, batting ninth, so he definitely had a shot. Read on to find out.
The Twins decided to be aggressive and swing at a lot of early-in-the-count pitches from Skubal, and this paid off: Manuel Margot led off the game with a second-pitch single, and with one out Royce Lewis hit a first-pitch slider for a no-doubter home run to left, giving Minnesota a 2-0 lead.
That lead was cut in half in the bottom of the first: Matt Vierling walked, stole second, and with two outs Mark Canha singled to centre.
After the first both pitchers really settled down, and having the batter’s eye in sunshine probably wasn’t helping the hitters too much either. However, with one out in the fifth, Skubal very uncharacteristically walked back-to-back hitters as his control seemed to elude him for a while. But he buckled down and struck out Byron Buxton, and got Lewis to fly out harmlessly to right, quenching the threat.
The dam finally broke in the bottom of the sixth, when Vierling singled and Colt Keith tripled to right to drive him home, tying the score.
Canha then launched a long sacrifice fly which drove home Keith and the Tigers took a 3-2 lead.
Speaking of long fly balls, and of the far-aforementioned Mr. Báez… in the seventh, with Bligh Madris on first, this happened:
If you’re counting along at home, that’s three in three days. As Jim Price used to say, “You can’t make this stuff up.” After another Vierling walk, Keith got in on the home run party and tattooed a sinker that didn’t sink to right field, and as Ernie Harwell used to say, “The Tigers are kickin’ up their heels!” When the dust settled the score was 7-2 and hey baseball is fun!
Skubal’s day was done. His final line was a stellar 7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 8 K. Love it.
The rest of the game was fairly uneventful, as Jason Foley and Beau Brieske closed things out — but, unfortunately, Jake Rogers did end up with a Golden Sombrero.
Javy and the Twins
Javier Baéz this season:
vs. #MNTwins — 3 homers in 9 games
vs. everyone else — 1 homer in 57 games— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) July 28, 2024
Numbers and Notes
- I took a closer look at Javier Báez’s numbers this year. When I stopped crying, I noticed something: his OPS for July coming into today (41 plate appearances) was a sizzling .562, aided by those recent home runs.
- Also, as has been well documented, he’s a much better hitter with runners on base, and especially when they’re in scoring position. Bases empty, OPS of .345; runners on, .644; runners in scoring position, .886 (!!!). Bat him fourth, I say!
- On this day in 1794, Maximilien Robespierre was arrested. See, France had themselves a lil’ ol’ Revolution a few years before — Marie Antoinette sure found that out the hard way — and Robespierre headed up the ominously-named “Committee of Public Safety” which put together what is now called the Reign of Terror. If you were deemed to be against the Revolution in any way, or were associated with the Church, well, let’s just say things might get a touch guillotine-y for you.