Bombas few, pitching abundant in series win

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Twins’ vaunted offense scored just 10 runs during this four-game series against Cleveland. Minnesota won three of four anyway.

In a big statement by the Twins against their primary rivals for the American League Central crown, a pitching-dominated Cleveland team was outplayed at its own game throughout the weekend. Though the Bomba Squad went quiet, Minnesota pitchers allowed just four runs in four games to push the Twins to an important series win with a 3-1 victory in Sunday afternoon’s series finale at Target Field.

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“You take three of four from a division rival, and a club that’s as good as them, that has the pitching staff that they have, it’s a big series for sure,” Tyler Clippard said. “So we recognize that. ... We didn’t really want to approach this series any different than anything else we’ve done this season, but it was a big series.”

The Twins have flashed two different sides to their team in this young 2020 campaign. First, there’s the team that erupted for 27 runs in three games against the White Sox. That’s the offensive powerhouse many expected to see. In these last two series against good Cardinals and Indians sides, the Twins have instead shown a pitching-dominant side, claiming victory in a series of close games.

“Ultimately, when you talk about teams that win, they have good pitching,” Clippard said. “And right now, we’re kind of making it very well-known to the baseball world that we can pitch. Obviously, our lineup speaks for itself. It’s so deep. A lot of home runs -- they’re going to score plenty of runs. But we can pitch, also. We definitely pride ourselves on that.”

Because Homer Bailey went to the 10-day injured list before Sunday’s game, the responsibility fell to the opener Clippard and relievers Devin Smeltzer, Matt Wisler, Tyler Duffey, Trevor May and Sergio Romo. They held Cleveland to two hits for a second straight game, with the only damage coming on a César Hernández double followed by a Francisco Lindor RBI single in the fourth inning.

On Saturday and Sunday, Twins pitchers held Cleveland hitters to two or fewer hits in consecutive games for the first time in franchise history. The last time they accomplished that feat at all was Aug. 1–2, 1986, against the A’s.

“When you go out and put runs on the board, whether it’s one run or a handful of runs, to be able to go out there and put zeros up is what keeps teams going,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It’s what keeps teams in a great mental state and allows them to keep playing great baseball with confidence. Our pitching staff has just been incredible, and with the group that we have and the mixture of different talents and different guys, I don’t expect anything to change.”

Though Cleveland ace Shane Bieber stifled the Twins over eight innings in the series opener, Minnesota punched back the next day when Randy Dobnak outdueled Mike Clevinger during a 4-1 win. Kenta Maeda bested Carlos Carrasco in a 3-0 game on Saturday, and, well, the bullpen game on Sunday got the better of Aaron Civale.

Minnesota pitchers have now allowed just four runs in their last 46 innings, and only nine total runs have crossed the plate against the Twins in the past seven games. At one point during this series, Minnesota pitchers went 15 innings without allowing a hit to the outfield.

There’s little doubt the offense will pick itself back up after facing some tough St. Louis and Cleveland pitching, and the sporadic but opportunistic scoring output was still enough this past week, anyway. That was again the case Sunday, when the Twins got three early runs on RBI singles by Jorge Polanco and Nelson Cruz and picked up a solo homer from the slumping Mitch Garver.

“The great thing is we have such a good lineup,” Garver said. “We're so deep. You've got guys on both sides of you that can protect you, and so you're able to take the load off yourself and put more emphasis on the team.”