The Twins spent Sunday looking exactly like a team in evaluation mode, and the Angels played right into it.
Minnesota rolled to an 8-0 win behind Dean Kremer, who gave the club six shutout innings and hardly let Los Angeles breathe. The Twins mixed in some younger and lesser-used pieces, with Walker Jenkins leading off, Alan Roden back in the lineup, and Ben Ross handling shortstop. It all fit the mood of a late-season game against an Angels club that, as usual, seemed stuck trying to figure out what it is.
Kremer wasn’t electric right away. His velocity was a bit down early, and the command wasn’t crisp.
Even so, he kept working around traffic and let the Angels keep making light contact. Los Angeles didn’t get its first hit until the fourth inning, when Vaughn Grissom singled, only to be wiped out on a double-play grounder from catcher Moisés Ballesteros.
Minnesota gave Kremer support in the third. Jenkins reached on an infield single with one out, Brooks Lee followed with a hard single to right, and Josh Bell dropped in a single to bring Jenkins home. Roden then added another single to score Lee and make it 2-0.
The Twins kept stacking at-bats against Ryan Johnson, whose quick, side-to-side delivery made him tough to square up at first. Minnesota still found a way to wear him down. Lee and Bell each singled again in the fifth, and Bell picked up another RBI before Johnson was lifted.
Kremer settled in as the game went along. He stayed away from the heart of the zone, found more strikes as the outing unfolded, and finished with eight strikeouts over six innings. He touched 94 MPH only once, but the four-seamer still produced plenty of whiffs.
The sixth inning turned into a little more Angels misery. With two outs, Emmanuel Rodríguez doubled off Jose Siri’s glove in center, then Ross singled him in.
Ross then tried to steal second without sliding, and the play got away into center field. He kept moving, took third, noticed the Angels were slow to the ball, and kept going home.
Minnesota blew it open in the seventh. Lee and Bell each came through again with their third hits of the game, both singles. Then Roden jumped on a first-pitch slider from lefty Sammy Peralta and crushed a three-run homer.
That was a nice answer from Roden, who had looked overmatched against Peralta earlier in the game and grounded out weakly. It was also a strong follow-up to a day that quietly pushed his line to .278/.349/.375, despite the stop-and-start playing time that has limited him. This was his first game since August 26.
Bailey Ober handled the last three innings after Kremer, part of Minnesota’s late-season rotation juggling. Ober hit 91 MPH and shut things down, allowing only a single that was really a misplay by Ross at shortstop.
There were also some broader notes worth watching. Royce Lewis struck out swinging in his first three trips before looping a meaningless single in the seventh.
Rodríguez snapped an 0-17 with his double off Siri’s glove, but he’s still stuck in tough counts too often. And Ober continues to look especially sharp when he can attack with a lead and not worry about pacing himself to six innings.
Next up, the Twins head to San Francisco to face the Giants. Ober had been lined up to start, but with him working in relief, Zebby Matthews may get the ball instead.
They’ll see Landen Roupp, who enters at 9-14 with a 4.01 ERA and is making his 30th start of the season. The Giants are dealing with injuries, and Luis Arraez is still second on the team in bWAR even after being traded at the deadline.
Rafael Devers, meanwhile, is out for the rest of the year with a core muscle injury.
In Other News...
Twins Outfield Picture Just Got More Complicated At The Worst Time
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The timing is notable because Walker Jenkins has started to look much more like himself at the plate, piling up six hits and two home runs in the first two games against Los Angeles. For a Twins team already juggling results in the series, Jenkins surge offers a bright spot, but Larnachs absence only adds another layer of uncertainty to an outfield that has suddenly become a lot harder to sort out. [Read more 🡒]
Byron Buxton's Long Injury Saga Just Got Worse For The Twins
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The timing only adds to the frustration in Minnesota, where the lineup is already dealing with another absence. Trevor Larnach landed on the injured list with a left wrist sprain, and Alan Roden was recalled from Triple-A to take his roster spot, leaving the Twins to patch together the outfield while Buxton begins the next phase of recovery. [Read more 🡒]
Trevor Larnach News Puts New Attention On A Twins Roster Move
The Twins roster shuffle this week put a new spotlight on the outfield mix, with Trevor Larnach landing on the Injured List and Alan Roden getting the call-up in his place. It was the kind of transaction that can ripple quickly through a club looking to keep its depth intact, especially when the organization is also watching how its upper-level players are performing day to day.
Across the system, the St. Paul Saints helped keep that conversation moving with a 4-3 win over Columbus, getting key contributions from Kalai Rosario and Jake Rucker. With player performances continuing to sort themselves out and another game on the schedule, Minnesota has a little more clarity in one area and a fresh question in another about how it will manage the outfield moving forward. [Read more 🡒]