Luke Keaschall’s First Home Run Of the Year Puts the Twins Back In Win Column

Minneapolis – The Minnesota Twins have played a lot of close ball games over their first 10 games of the season. However, more often than not, they’ve lost close games because they lacked a big inning to put some room between them and their opponents, aside from Friday’s home opener.

They were able to get another win with a sizeable lead again on Monday night when Byron Buxton, Luke Keaschall, and Victor Caratini came up with some clutch hitting to give the Twins a 7-3 victory over the Tigers.

“We ended up getting some two-out hits, which is good,” said Twins manager Derek Shelton. “Like we’ve said, we’ve got to give this group some time. I mean, we’re 30 plate appearances in. I know at times, it hasn’t looked pretty, but it’s 30 plate appearances. So I was really proud of them.”

Joe Ryan started for the Twins and was perfect against the Detroit Tigers’ lineup for the first time through on just 40 pitches. However, on the second time through, they scored three runs on a few hits and an error by Brooks Lee at shortstop, forcing Ryan to throw 39 pitches to get three outs.

“Just kind of got out of my delivery a little bit and was working on some stuff,” Ryan said regarding the long inning. “That was the main thing. I wouldn't even say it was specifically the fourth inning. I was nursing it a little bit, and there are a couple things I could do differently, and we're working on already.”

Despite being at 79 pitches through four innings, and the game tied 3-3, Shelton sent Ryan back out for the fifth, after Keaschall regained the lead for him and the Twins on a 2-run homer in the bottom of the fourth.

Ryan ran into trouble again, allowing a one-out double to Detroit’s top prospect, Kevin McGonigle, and a walk to Glyber Torres. However, Ryan bounced back, retiring the last two hitters on a strikeout and groundout.

“You're kind of accustomed to it and try to stay within yourself and execute good pitches the way we know how to do,” said Ryan. “I think you're leaning on your catcher, trusting your defense, and that always helps. I just filled up the zone a little bit more, and good things happen, and then they swing and miss too, and it's always a good thing.”

“It felt great to get back in the lead,” said Keaschall. “[Ryan] was fighting hard through the last inning, they scrapped a single through the hole. He pitched hard, he pitched great.”

While Buxton and Keaschall have been slow out of the gates this season, their poor numbers wouldn’t last forever. Buxton got the Twins scoring started with a leadoff double and eventually came around on an RBI sac fly from Caratini in the third. Then Keaschall’s first homer of the year in the fourth gave the Twins a lead they didn’t relinquish for the rest of the game.

“Can’t hit 1.000 your whole life,” Keaschall said. “Just try to be the same guy every day. Just keep fighting, and you’ll find your best self.”

“I think even [similar to]f Keasch, Buck is going to hit. And I told Buck this actually at some point before the game,” said Shelton. “I have a lot of worries in my life, Byron Buxton hitting is not one of them. And he’s going to. It’s just good to see that throughout the lineup, I thought we did a good job tonight.”

The bullpen came through with four scoreless innings after Ryan’s exit in the fifth. Anthony Banda, Eric Orze, Kody Funderburk, and Cody Laweryson all performed well. After Victor Caratini gave the Twins a 7-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth, Laweryson stayed in the game to record a five-out save, the first of his career.

However, Funderburk ran into some trouble in the eighth that could have made the game much closer for the Tigers. When Funderburk faced his third batter of the inning, he threw a wild pitch to the backstop in the top of the eighth with two runners on, which turned into a gift horse when Caratini caught the ball perfectly after it bounced off the limestone.

Riley Greene had not advanced far off second base, but Spencer Torkelson was two-thirds of the way there from first. Caratini threw the ball to first baseman Kody Clemens, and he and Brooks Lee were able to get Torkelson out in a rundown. It gave the Twins a much-needed out after Funderburk walked the first two batters of the inning.

“The baseball gods were with us today. We used the limestone extremely well and got ourselves into a situation,” said Shelton. “And then that’s a play that can really get screwed up, because it can turn into an old-school pickle that you’re used to on the playground. But it didn’t.”