Schoop homers, exits after tweaking side in loss

MINNEAPOLIS -- Just when the Twins’ lineup was getting healthy again with the returns of both Eddie Rosario and C.J. Cron on Tuesday, it appeared as though the Bomba Squad had suffered another hit when Jonathan Schoop was removed in the ninth inning of the Twins’ 3-2 loss to the Mets at Target Field after grabbing his left side following a swing.

The Twins may have averted a significant issue, though, as Schoop said after the game that he felt something in his side but expected to be OK. The second baseman will undergo further evaluation Wednesday morning.

With that said, regardless of what Schoop’s tests reveal in the morning, hot-hitting rookie Luis Arraez immediately stepped up and again showed the Twins that their position-player depth is in good shape to weather any injuries that may pop up.

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Schoop had hit a solo homer in the third inning off Mets starter Steven Matz, his 15th of the season, to account for one of the Twins’ runs. He was hitting with the bases empty and one out in the ninth inning when he fouled off an 0-2 fastball and immediately clutched his left side. He exited the game after he consulted with manager Rocco Baldelli and assistant athletic trainer Matt Biancuzzo.

“I didn't want to come out,” Schoop said. “I just like to play baseball, like to compete out there. Sometimes, as a human, you don't want to come out, but they see something different, so right now, they'll see maybe tomorrow and the next day.”

After Schoop exited the game, the 22-year-old Arraez stepped to the plate and faced the unenviable situation of inheriting an 0-2 count against flamethrowing Mets closer Edwin Diaz. He had taken some practice swings in the cage early in the seventh inning but had been watching from the dugout before he was forced into duty.

He didn’t really have a way to catch on to Diaz’s timing before he stepped into the left-handed batter’s box, either; he was just working off of film that he had watched in the video room before the game.

The first pitch he saw was clocked at 98.5 mph. Foul. The next pitch came 98.9. Another foul. He took 99.7 and 98.7 for balls, and the Target Field crowd started to wake up.

“He’s a great hitter,” Nelson Cruz said. “We saw it. Just got up there and battled.”

Another fastball at 98.9 was fouled off. A heater at 99.6 missed, low and inside, to run the count full, with the crowd roaring with each swing and every take. For the first time in the at-bat, Diaz turned to his slider -- the pitch with a 39.2 percent whiff rate this season. That, too, was somehow fouled away.

"My mentality was just to keep fighting and get on base someway, somehow,” Arraez said. “I was just prepared for all his pitches."

When the 11th pitch missed up and away, a crowd of 28,712 roared its approval and gave the rookie a standing ovation for his one-out walk. Arraez has shown maturity in his plate discipline and bat control far beyond his years since he first showed up at Target Field, and that plate appearance was the best example yet.

“It’s just another example of what we’ve seen from Luis since he’s shown up here, since the first time we’ve seen him in Spring Training this year,” Baldelli said. “Pretty incredible. You don’t see very many at-bats like that, really against any pitcher, but against a guy like Diaz, you’re certainly not going to see very many.”

Arraez’s hard-fought walk brought the Target Field crowd to life and proved to be the spark that the Twins needed in the ninth, as Mitch Garver knocked a hard single and Marwin Gonzalez fouled off a pair of two-strike offerings before hitting an infield single to load the bases with two outs.

Though Cruz popped out to end the game with the tying run 90 feet away from home plate, the Twins ultimately fought to the bitter end, and that rally began with the gritty plate appearance from the kid that started the season in Double-A Pensacola.

“My heart is jumping a little bit because it's a lot of emotion in the game,” said starter Michael Pineda, who was watching from the clubhouse. “It's awesome. It's awesome.”

All that’s to say: Schoop should be fine -- but even if he isn’t, Arraez has continued to show in an increasing sample size that the Twins would remain in good hands.

“I think he’s proving himself to be a very valuable Major League piece,” Baldelli said. “I’d be surprised if he did not get regular at-bats in a Major League lineup for a long time. His ability to get on base and manipulate the bat head and things like that, his hand-eye coordination, I’ve said it before -- I think it’s exceptional, even at the Major League level when compared with some of the best guys out there.”