Diamondbacks 3, Twins 8: Series Equalizing Beatdown

After a tense, well fought game last night that wasn’t decided until the penultimate inning, tonight’s matchup was anything but. No, instead, the Twins demonstrated exactly why they’re one of the best offenses in the majors and have put themselves firmly into a position to again return to the postseason. In all honesty, this was one of those games where the D-Backs never really felt like a participant - or at least not an active one. The Twins were more aggressive at the plate, sharper on the mound, and simply outclassed the D-Backs. It was equal parts humbling and humiliating to watch.

Unfortunately, this game seemed to begin and end with Ryne Nelson. After consecutive strong starts against - admittedly - the White Sox and Nationals, there was genuine hope that the young right hander had turned a corner in his development. Frustratingly, a third consecutive strong start was not in the cards - a result that was evident early on as the Twins absolutely tee’d off on nearly every Nelson pitch. At times, it looked as if he was pitching batting practice rather than a competitive start. He allowed more hard contact of 90+ EV (13) than he had swing and miss (11) across his 3.2 innings pitched. Even the outs were loud. And when his pitches weren’t getting shellacked, he was shellacking the batters as he had two HBPs - both in the same inning. This was one of those starts that is better to simply flush away and focus on his next turn in the rotation which would theoretically be against the Dodgers in Chavez Ravine.

Miraculously, Nelson was able to escape the first without any damage despite a one out double from Trevor Larnach. The same could not be said for the second, which was the first of four consecutive scoring innings for the Twins. Carlos Correa got the “fun” started with a leadoff single before being followed by a Carlos Santana single and the first of two HBPs of Byron Buxton. I’m no professional ball player, but loading the bases with no outs doesn’t seem to be the most effective run-prevention strategy. Lo and behold, Jose Miranda would quickly prove prescient as he laced a beautiful double into the left-center gap that cleared the bases for an early 3-0 Twins lead. Nelson would limit the damage to just that gut punch, but it was an inauspicious sign of the trouble ahead.

Once again in the next inning, the Carlos’ would team up with consecutive singles before Buxton drove a ball to deep centerfield for a 4-0 lead. In the visiting half of the fourth, Willi Castro and Larnach doubled up two-baggers for another Minnesota run to push to a 5-0 lead before Correa mercifully ended Nelson’s night with a run-scoring double for a 6-0 Minnesota lead. For whatever it’s worth, the Arizona bullpen struggled to hold the Minnesota offense down either as Scott McGough, called upon to relieve the young Oregonian, allowed yet another Minnesota double. He would then yield to Brandon Hughes...who promptly gave up an absolute bomb of a two-run homer to Castro for the final Twins’ runs for an 8-1 lead.

Thankfully, the D-Backs bats were able to string enough offense together to keep the game from being embarrassing, but not quite enough to ever give anything more than a flicker of hope. To put the game in perspective, the Twins had more doubles than the D-Backs had hits. Simeon Woods Richardson, making just his 14th big league start, was quite effective even if he wasn’t as pitch efficient. He utilized a three-pitch mix of four-seamer, slider, and changeup to great effect and kept the Arizona hitters on their back foot throughout his five-plus innings pitched. They were able to scratch out a run against the youngster in the home half of the fourth thanks to their own HBP of Joc Pederson plus Lourdes Gurriel Jr’s first triple of the season. Their final two runs came in the home half of the sixth when they took advantage of a tiring Woods Richardson with a leadoff Ketel Marte walk, a Christian Walker double, and Gurriel Jr sac fly that combined for the 8-3 final.

For some inexplicable reason, this team is apparently allergic to having a .500 or better record. They have not found themselves at or above that mark since the first week of the season on April 5th when they were walked off by Atlanta in 10 innings. In the interim, they have come close several times, especially during this recent bout of success, but have seemingly always found themselves on the wrong end of the scorecard. Even still, they have managed to secure their first winning month of the season and have undoubtedly been playing their best baseball lately (as low a bar as that may be). Tonight’s unsung hero has to be Thyago Vieira who swallowed 2.1 IP to make sure that the rest of the bullpen could be better rested for tomorrow’s rubber match. It’s one of the few bright spots of a night that was virtually devoid of them. Hopefully we can all rest up tonight, forget this game ever happened, and return in just over 12 hours for a series-ending rubber match with Jordan Montgomery taking the mound.