‘We can hit it’: Twins defeat Cubs while bats stay alive

MINNEAPOLIS — On the surface, this is what positive regression to the mean looks like.

It seems that the explosion of saturday could have broken the seal, because the Twins threw baseballs at every corner of Target Field on Sunday. Minnesota broke out for a seven-run third inning and another seven-run eighth inning that somehow resulted in an even bigger thrashing in a 16-3 win that provided a much-needed offensive boost before a big road series against the Dodgers.

The sleeping bats have been awakened in unprecedented fashion, as the Twins’ 29 runs in the series win over the Cubs marked the most scored in any three-game series at Target Field since the stadium opened in 2010. His 16 runs and 18 hits both marked season highs, with all nine members of the starting lineup recording at least one hit each.

“Yesterday, obviously, it’s just a confidence boost,” left fielder. joey rooster said of the Twins’ 11-1 win on Saturday. “Everyone feels good. Everybody’s getting hits. Everybody is driving the ball. You come in today and it’s like, ‘We’re going to win again.’”

It was also promising in that the Twins didn’t just smash home runs; they held long two-out rallies, as 13 of their runs were scored with two outs. They batted twice, recording a pair of seven-run innings in a game for the first time since June 13, 2017.

With the way Minnesota’s starting rotation has continued to dominate, a sustained offensive run could mean big things for this team. On Sunday, he was a native of North St. Paul. Louis Varland — the Twins’ seventh starter — who threw a season-high 6 1/3 innings in another impressive display of the Twins’ pitching depth.

And seemingly across the lineup, all at once, Twins hitters seem to be coming off long slumps.

“You’re going to go through the ups and downs,” Gallo said. “Because of our offense, we continue to believe. We look at our lineup, we look around our clubhouse, we have a very good team. We can swing it. Sometimes you will get results. Sometimes you are not.

The coaching staff tried to shake things up by moving Gallo to the leadoff spot for the first time in his career, and he responded with towering home runs in back-to-back games, and they’re hoping he’s okay after he walked out of Sunday’s game after looking seized. he pinched his leg while running down the first base line in the seventh inning.

After the Twins gave Byron Buxton a bad day to restart Saturday, he snapped an 0-for-26 streak with his first two-hit game since April 30, both on hard lines at 111 mph and 94.7 mph, respectively.

“He’s been focused and ready to play and in a pretty good frame of mind, even on the days when he didn’t get a hit,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “But sometimes a day off when you’ve been playing for a while, that can help some guys in a way.”

You can go ahead, really.

nick gordon He’s gotten off to a slow start this season, but he crushed three balls with one hard hit, including an RBI double off the top of the center-field wall. Jorge Polanco he had been on a 34-6 slump before recording a home run, a double and three walks in the past two games. Christian Vazquez he snapped a 2-for-28 slump with his first multi-hit game since April 27.

AND Trevor Larnachin his second game in the Majors, he squashed a three-run home run to right field on a slider by Marcus Stroman after battling off-speed pitches for most of his career, and particularly while struggling to square the ball during the most of the month. .

“I think I just found it after they sent me,” Larnach said. “And if there was any determination there, I don’t think there was any extra. It was like I took a couple of days for my body and then just focused on what I felt like I needed.”

After the first game of this series, the Twins lamented the fact that they felt like they were hitting the ball hard, but there are still opportunities and playing, apparently, the same closed games over and over again. Maybe a couple of landslide wins will open the door for more.

“You don’t want to be the guy who goes 0-for-5 and everyone is hitting,” Gallo said. “You feel responsibility: ‘I also want to do my part.’ That’s how the last few games have gone.”