Kudos to the Twins cleaning crew who got the ballpark ready for Game 2 of today’s split doubleheader in just a couple of hours.
Before we take on Game 2, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out Brian Dozier’s “infield hit” below. I’m pretty sure it’s something you’ve never seen happen before. This, folks, is why coaches taught us to “always run everything out!”
On to Game 2. Cole De Vries has been called upon to make a spot start tonight for the Twins, though he won’t find a Twins jersey in his locker when he shows up to get dressed for the game. Tonight is “turn back the clock” night and the Twins will be wearing Minneapolis Millers uniforms. The Royals, likewise, will be wearing throwback KC Blues uniforms.
Denard Span is getting the night off as Ben Revere leads off and plays CF. Having Span and Ryan Doumit ready to pinch hit late in the game could come in handy.
| ROYALS |
@ |
TWINS |
| Gordon, LF | Revere, CF | |
| Betancourt, Y, 2B | Carroll, SS | |
| Moustakas, 3B | Mauer, C | |
| Butler, DH | Willingham, LF | |
| Francoeur, RF | Morneau, DH | |
| Hosmer, 1B | Plouffe, 3B | |
| Perez, S, C | Parmelee, 1B | |
| Dyson, CF | Mastroianni, RF | |
| Escobar, A, SS | Casilla, A, 2B | |
| _Hochevar, P | _De Vries, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Kansas City | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | x | 5 | 9 | 0 |
Where to begin? So many little tidbits being passed along after the Twins beat the Royals 5-1.
Let’s start with the obvious… that was a doubleheader SWEEP of the Royals that our guys completed tonight. Yes, I know it isn’t exactly the Yankees… or even the White Sox… but hey, the Twins are looking up at the Royals in the standings, so let’s not minimize this too much!
MLB.com Twins beat writer Rhett Bollinger tweeted a couple of additional little fun facts after the game. For example, this was the Twins’ first doubleheader sweep since September 13… FOUR years ago. Yes, September of 2008 was the last time the Twins took both ends of a doubleheader. In fact, winning even one game of a doubleheader would have been an improvement over last season when the Twins went 0-8 in doubleheader games. And finally, with today’s sweep,the Twins completed the month of June with a 14-13 record… the first winning record for a month since July last year.
Joe Mauer continued his hot hitting, going 2 for 4 and Josh Willingham apparently decided he didn’t want to let Trevor Plouffe lead the team in HRs without him, so he launched his 16th of the season, as Plouffe did this afternoon.
But the story of the game… and our Boyfriend of the Day… was starting pitcher Cole DeVries. The Minnesota kid went six innings while giving up just five hits and one walk and striking out six Royals. The bullpen of Alex Burnett, Tyler Robertson and Jared Burton each threw a scoreless inning of relief in support of DeVries.
