Game 3 Get Out The Broom!

Severino had good stuff including excellent movement on his slider.  The 2nd inning was an enormous inning in the game.  The Twins had bases loaded and nobody out and Sano was up.  This AB was a great one as the chess game was on.  Sano has great power but can be beat with high heat, but that also has a danger with a guy with his power.  After just missing with a fastball (close enough to call but was a ball), Seve threw a fastball for a strike and then missed with another close fastball before challenging him for a swinging strike (fastball).  Sano then fouled off a slider and 99 MPH fastball before taking a slider that looked like a strike, but showed a tiny bit low on the strike zone.  3-2 count bases loaded and nobody out, Seve got Sano to pop up on a 98 MPH fastball.  Seve then threw 4 straight sliders to Gonzalez to strike him out.  The part I thought was well done was on the last slider, Seve took a little off of it and threw it at 84 mph, most of his sliders were at 86-89 mph.  Now with 2 outs Jake Cave came up.  2 slider had the count at 1-1 followed by a fastball that Cave froze on.  At 1-2, Cave fouled off a tough fastball (98) up and in and then took a fastball (98) for a ball before being frozen on a slider (89) for a called 3rd strike.  HUGE sequence in the game!

Torres was a star hitting for 8 bases (2 doubles and a HR) while making an excellent play in the field (and another where he had a clunky, slide fielding the ball,  where he might have been able to throw the batter out at first if he slid as well as he did on his great play.)

Didi made a great diving catch to snare a line drive at another key spot in the 9th

Negative section:

Twins hit some hard balls and we centered too many pitches, but we were fortunate they were at people.  They flashed that the Twins hit 5 of the 6 hardest balls of the game and they hit at least one more after that.

Once again we had an injury and the player stayed in and possibly aggravated it.  Britton was hurt in the 7th and they left him in for the 8th where he allowed a solo HR and got an out before they took him out with a sore ankle.  They don't think it is anything serious and luckily we have until Saturday to rest it, but a sore ankle can be tricky.  I just don't get our logic and while you do what you have to in the playoffs, at that spot I would have yanked him.  Let Chapman go 2.  Once again Boone did not get much out of Ottavino, but you simply can't come in and walk a guy.

Judge was up in the 3rd inning with Urshela on 3rd base with one out and he had a 3-2 count before taking a 94 MPH fastball for a definite strike that wasn't even on the corner.  Judge is our best player, but sometimes his approach with 2 strikes baffles me as he takes so many called 3rd strikes.  I think he should look for more fastballs in those spots and adjust to the off-speed stuff.  With a guy on 3rd base and less than 2 outs, you need to do that even more.  BTW, Urshela was on 2nd base because of an awful play by the Twins LF, Cave, who dove at a ball he had no chance on and turned a single into a double and that ended up costing them a run as Gardner picked up Judge slapping a single down the line

Sanchez is struggling to center the ball as he missed many hittable pitches.  Hopefully, he can get it going. 

More positives:

Judge made a catch in the 8th that he might have been the only player who could have caught it.  An absolute bullet was hit to deep RC and he went back on it with a perfect angle and reached up extended his full 6' 8" frame and long arms to bring in that line drive.  Judge runs well but assuming another fast(er) person was in RF, I don't think any of them could have had the height to go up and get that ball.  Great play!

Maybin's HR in the 9th to tack on runs was huge. 

We outscored the Twins 23-7 in the 3 games!  Holding that offense to 7 runs in 3 games is a great job!


The next game is Saturday, hopefully at the Bronx against TB.  Otherwise, the battle most people expect, has the two best teams go at it.  No disrespect to other teams as anyone of them can win a series, but Houston and the Yankees are the two best teams in baseball; this matchup is the one people should want (but I am rooting for TB)

8 more wins to go!