Squandered Opportunity

ALDS Game 1:
Astros 6
Twins 4

With the pressure of two ugly postseason streaks behind them, I pretty much think the Twins are playing with house money now. Nobody really thinks this team has what it takes to go all the way. So I approached this next series pretty zen-like. 

That doesn't mean squandering a quite winnable game 1 against Houston isn't still annoying. The Twins had a great chance to steal one of the games in Houston they will have to to advance again, but blew it through some dreadful situational at bats. 

Right from the start, Justin Verlander was far from unhittable. The first 2 Twins reached, but a double play wiped it out.
Another double play in the 2nd.
A Julien leadoff double in the 3rd. Again, no runs.
And then Verlander got in his groove.

As all this was going on, the Twins pitchers were not putting up zeroes. In fact, the Astros led after 1 pitch, a Jose Altuve homerun off Bailey Ober. A Yordan Alavarez 2 run shot expanded the lead. And the Astros tacked on another pair against Kenta Maeda.

At 5-0, deep into the game, the remaining innings felt like a formality. 

But the Twins bats sprang to life in the 7th. With Verlander out, the Twins got a couple baserunners, then Jorge Polanco deposited a 3 run shot way up into the upper deck. Even better, they went back to back when Royce Lewis snapped his terrible 1 game homerun drought with a solo shot to cut it to 5-4.

It was the end of the rally though. The Astros got a run back when Alvarez took Caleb Thielbar deep. A leadoff Correa went nowhere. And The Twins went down in order to Ryan Pressly in the 9th.

The ugly numbers from this game: 1 for 12 with RISP, and 13 strikeouts.

Pablo Lopez gets game 2, which is pretty close to a must win if you want to maintain realistic hopes of reaching the ALCS. 

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