The Eddie Rosario Game

My 2nd in-person Twins game of the year turned out to be the kind of game that if-still a big if-the Twins are able to salvage the season, will be looked back on as one of the turning points.

Naturally it wasn't easy, as things never are with this team. Kyle Gibson is dealing into the 6th, with only an Encarnacion bomb on the board, He walks a guy in the 6th around 2 easy outs. And here comes Molitor, who can always be counted on to make baffling decisions regarding when and when not to take pitchers out which always backfire. In comes Ryan Pressly, who issues one of those unintentional intentional walks to Jose Ramirez....to bring up the same Encarnacion. Um, okay, why do that at all, and why bring a reliever in to do it? And then Encarnacion hits one to Duluth and Cleveland takes the lead. I pretty much wanted Molitor fired at this point.

But in the 7th, at last Brian Dozier hits a homerun that mattered to tie the game, and to get into that Cleveland bullpen. Eddie Rosario immediately goes back to back for his 2nd of the game and the Twins lead again.

Which lasts 2 batters, as the once reliable Addison Reed serves one up to Michael Brantley. Tie game again. The Twins could have taken the lead back in the 8th, but Gene Glynn stupidly sent Adrianza home on a LaMarre double where he was out by a mile. It really is amazing this team has won at all with these coaches.

But it all worked out. The Fernando Rodney Experience worked a clean 9th, Brian Dozier coaxed a leadoff walk, and then Rosario comes up and settles matters with his 3rd homerun of the day. Twins win 7-5.

Enormous win to cap an enormous series. The Twins had already dug such a hole that anything less that a series split this weekend likely would have put the nail at least part way into the coffin. Now they already secured that, but to have pissed this game away would have been a 2 game swing. Rosario saved them.

Rosario has been saving them all year. He's the one guy in this lineup that not only can be counted on, but has an undeniable clutch gene. Turns out he's become everything we thought Byron Buxton was going to be. And now the rest of the lineup has shown a pulse.

So the Twins are back to a 3 1/2 game deficit in their only plausible path to the playoffs.