CLEVELAND – Kenta Maeda's no-hitter this time lasted only two pitches, all four Twins relievers put the tying run on base — three of them in scoring position — and the Twins' biggest sluggers found it impossible to pull Aaron Civale's pitches.
'Sneaky good' Twins ride power, pitching to edge Cleveland 3-2
Homers by Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sano, combined with tightrope pitching helped secure the Twins' 20th victory of season as the 60-game schedule reached the halfway point.
August 25, 2020 at 12:20PM
And as it seems to so often during a bizarre season that reached the halfway point on Monday, everything worked out well for the Twins anyway.
Maeda turned in five rumpled but effective innings, the bullpen tiptoed out of one mess after another, and Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sano displayed the strength to turn opposite-field semi-swings into home runs and enough offense to earn a 3-2 victory over Cleveland at Progressive Field.
"This is a very sneaky, very good effort," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said, and while he was referring to Maeda, the description fits his entire team during the first game of three in Cleveland.
The Twins closed the first half of the bizarre 2020 season with 20 wins, just the second AL team to get there, and they own a 2 ½ game lead over Cleveland in the AL Central. At 20-10, the Twins are living up to their lock-for-the-playoffs preseason billing, especially under an eight-team postseason format.
Nobody is meeting expectations more robustly than Maeda, though. The Japanese righthander, who lost his no-hitter in the ninth inning of his last start, this time surrendered it, and his shutout, on the third pitch of the game, when leadoff hitter Cesar Hernandez drilled a mid-plate slider into the right-center seats.
"That home run was 100 percent my mistake. But then again, it was just a solo home run," said Maeda, who shut out Cleveland from that point for five innings, despite not having his best stuff. "The pitches I threw today, not everything was perfect, but then again, not everything was going too bad."
That's the story of the Twins' season. Take Cruz, who after seeing nothing but breaking pitches fought off a two-strike outside fastball in the fourth inning with a spoil-the-pitch swing that normally produces a foul ball. Cruz's strength, though, blasted the ball nearly 400 feet into the right field seats.
"That's been the case the last few days — I feel like I've tried to protect the strike zone, because I've been seeing a lot of breaking balls," Cruz said. "For some reason, [Civale] threw me a fastball, and I was able to not only square it up but hit it out. When that happens, it means you're in a good spot."
None better than Sano in the past week, though. Two innings later, after Eddie Rosario doubled, Sano imitated Cruz's approach, crushing an outside pitch with another kinda-sorta swing and producing a two-run homer that marked Sano's first opposite-field home run since last Aug. 17 in Detroit.
The Twins got no other runs, but the bullpen made it hold up, even if it was tense. Caleb Thielbar left two runners on by striking out Roberto Perez. Trevor May allowed three hits and a run but struck out Franmil Reyes with the tying run at third. And Sergio Romo allowed a leadoff double to Tyler Naquin and fell behind 3-0 to Perez but ultimately stuck with the slider to strike out Greg Allen and escape.
Taylor Rogers gave up a hit but pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his seventh save.
"This has been our season in a nutshell," Baldelli said. "Guys stepping up, winning close ballgames, any way we can."
A former second-round pick of the Rangers, Alex Speas has pitched in four major league games.
