The Twins bullpen, an Achilles heel for the team from Day 1 this season, showed some signs of life over the weekend.
Five relievers combined to record the final 15 outs Sunday, and the Twins, helped by turning their first triple play since August 2019, managed to hold off the Kansas City Royals 2-1 at Kauffman Stadium to split the four-game series.
A day after Tyler Duffey, Taylor Rogers and Hansel Robles pitched the final three innings to finish off a 5-4 victory, the Twins went two innings deeper Sunday, turning to the bullpen after rookie righthander Bailey Ober pitched the first four innings.
Luke Farrell struck out two batters in the fifth; Jorge Alcala needed only 10 pitches to get through the top of the order in the sixth; Duffey recorded a couple of line-drive outs in the seventh; and Robles pitched his first 1-2-3 inning in his past six outings to get through the eighth.
Robles started the ninth as well to face Whit Merrifield, but the Royals leadoff hitter lined a double to left. It's the fifth time in six games Robles has given up a double to begin an inning. But Taylor Rogers entered and froze Carlos Santana with a breaking ball for strike three, then got Andrew Benintendi out on a fly ball to left.
Rocco Baldelli then elected to walk Twins killer Salvador Perez as the potential winning run, bringing up Kelvin Gutierrez. Rogers got two quick strikes on the third baseman and got the third baseman to ground into a forceout to short to end the game.
The Twins' past five victories have been by one run, and they won back-to-back one-run games for the first time this season.
Making his second major league start, Ober cruised through his first two innings, then gave up five hits over his next two. But he was the beneficiary of a triple play to escape his outing with only one run against him.
Jarrod Dyson and Cam Gallagher began the third inning with singles to right. No. 9 hitter Nicky Lopez attempted to sacrifice the runners over, but he popped his bunt off the 6-foot-9 Ober high enough that Sano, charging from first, wa able to catch the ball. The runners had already committed to advancing, so Sano tossed to shortstop Andrelton Simmons to retire Dyson, and Simmons threw to Nick Gordon covering first to force out Gallagher.
It's the 15th triple play in Twins history. Sano has been involved in the past four, two at first base and two at third. It's also the first triple play hit into by the Royals since April 20, 2012.
According to SABR, it's also only the eighth 3-6-4 triple play in major league history, and the first since Cleveland's Toby Harrah lined into one — Bruce Bochte to Jim Anderson to Julio Cruz — at home vs. Seattle on May 31, 1980. (On the mound for the Mariners: Mike Parrott, who took the loss that day, one of 16 in a row for him that year after he won on Opening Day.)
With a lineup lacking Nelson Cruz and Josh Donaldson, the Twins didn't hit a home run for the first time in 17 games, failing to break the team record this year's Twins shared with the 2019 version. Sano hit an RBI double in the third inning, and Trevor Larnach drove in the go-ahead run when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, but the Twins failed to score again despite collecting 10 hits.
The Twins scored the first run of the game in the third inning. Simmons and Kirilloff singled, and Miguel Sano hit a two-out double down the left-field line to score Simmons from second. But the rally ended right there as Kirilloff was tagged out after straying too far from third, denying the Twins a chance for further damage in the inning.
Merrifield opened the bottom of the fourth inning with a hit to right-center, a hit that became a triple when right fielder Kirilloff couldn't field the ball as it rolled past him. Two batters later, Andrew Benintendi tied the score with a single to center.
The Twins loaded the bases in the top of the fifth with a Kyle Garlick walk, Andrelton Simmons' second infield single in a row and a bunt single from Jorge Polanco. But Singer came back to strike out Kirilloff and Sano, but he bounced an 0-1 pitch that clipped Larnach to drive in the go-ahead run.
The Star Tribune reporter did not travel for this game. This article was written using the television broadcast and video interviews after the game.
