The Cleveland Guardians found out things were not so nice when they travelled to Minnesota to take on the Twins. Cleveland found themselves facing adversity before they even made it to the Twin Cities with their series finale against the White Sox being postponed due to COVID-19. Seven coaches entered health and safety protocols and Josh Naylor was placed on the COVID-19 IL with the team recalling Richie Palacios to fill his roster spot. This series was going to be a challenge for the Guardians as the Twins are the current division leader, adding in the organizational shuffle on top top that just made it a bit more difficult.
It was an offensive explosion in Friday’s 12-8 loss with Minnesota at one point holding an 11-2 lead. Some late inning runs that really only impacted the stats of Twins pitcher Griffin Jax ended up not mattering in the end. The series opener appeared to set the stage for what could be a run scoring frenzy at Target Field, it did not.
The next two games saw the Guardians and Twins combine to score just nine runs in 19 innings. It was a 3-2 win in Mickey Mouse extra-innings Saturday propelled by Andres Gimenez and some clever base running by Myles Straw. Sunday’s rubber match lacked late drama as all the run scoring was done by the 5th inning. Three of the four runs score in the contest were via the solo homer, Max Kepler’s RBI single in the 1st being the outlier.
Normalcy (sort of) has seemed to settle in for the Guardians after they were stuck in a sweep streak earlier this season. Cleveland has played moderately well over the last 14 games with a 9-5 record to show for it. The conclusion of the annual Ohio Cup series with the Reds awaits them beginning Tuesday with off days Monday and Thursday before taking on the disappointing Detroit Tigers to finish out the week. This is the opportunity to build up some wins on some lesser opponents to possibly get back into the mix of an underperforming American League Central.
