Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Monday, April 17, 2017

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1 Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Monday, April 17, 2017 Statcast of the Day: Dozier's inside job. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 1 Santiago solid, but Twins fall to Sox in extras. MLB.com (Bollnger/Donnelly) p. 2 Adrianza set for first extended spring game. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 3 Twins, Gibson open season series with Tribe. MLB.com (Kosileski) p. 3 Despite Brian Dozier's inside-the-park home run, Twins fall to White Sox in 10 innings. Star Tribune (Miller) p. 4 Brian Dozier 'surprised' by inside-the-park homer. Star Tribune (Miller) p. 5 Twins are showing signs of life while the Wild nears its final breaths. Star Tribune (Rand) p. 5 ByungHo Park going to Florida for injury rehab assignment. Star Tribune (Miller) p. 6 Long ball gets Ryan Pressly again in Twins 3-1 loss to White Sox. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 7 Anthony Swarzak witnesses another Minnesota Twins low-hit game. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 8 Wetmore s 5 thoughts: Dozier s speed, a strong starting staff, focus on Buxton. ESPN 1500 (Wetmore) p. 9 Better odds: Twins win A.L. Central or the Wild come back to win series? ESPN 1500 (Wetmore) p. 11 Santiago pitches seven shutout innings in Twins loss to White Sox. Associated Press p. 12 Twins scheduled starting pitchers could be good sign for the Tribe. Associated Press p. 13 Statcast of the Day: Dozier's inside job Rhett Bollinger MLB.com April 16, 2017 Brian Dozier proved his right knee is just fine, as the Twins second baseman hit his first career inside-the-park homer in the fifth inning of Sunday's 3-1 loss to the White Sox. It was also the first in the Majors this year. Dozier, who missed Saturday's game with knee soreness, smacked a 1-2 cutter from right-hander James Shields into deep center field, and the ball hit off Jacob May's glove and rolled along the warning track toward right field. Dozier beat the relay throw from shortstop Leury Garcia at home with a head-first slide to mark the second inside-the-park homer in Target Field history. He joined Eduardo Nunez, who had an inside-theparker for the Twins last year. "I saw it the whole way," said Dozier, who also never hit an inside-the-parker in the Minors. "When I saw it kick off to the right, I decided to get to a second gear. I couldn't get to fifth gear, but got it to a different gear." It was the first homer of the season for Dozier, who belted a career-high 42 last year. Dozier raced home in seconds, marking the 10th-fastest inside-the-park home run in the Statcast era out of 19 recorded since For context, Byron Buxton was the last Twins player to accomplish the feat -- and the last in the Majors to do so -- and he did it in seconds on Oct. 3, 2016, which was the fastest home-to-home time ever recorded by Statcast. "When the ball kicked off his glove and went pretty far away, that's when I thought he really had a chance," Twins third-base coach Gene Glynn said. "Brian was running hard the whole way. But I have to give that kid credit on the relay. They got it in, and it was just a little off the mark." The play at the plate was close, but Dozier just beat it and celebrated with a big smile as he headed back to the Twins' dugout. "They did everything they could to get it in," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. "On the relay, Leury pulled the ball a little bit, but they did everything in their power to keep that guy from scoring."

2 Dozier's homer left the bat at 95.4 mph with a launch angle of 24 degrees, traveling a projected 374 feet. Balls hit with a similar exit velocity and launch angle have a hit probability of only 28 percent, per Statcast, making it an unlikely homer. "With no outs, you don't want to be overly aggressive, but the relay guy was pretty far out there and [Glynn] made the right call," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "It gave us a 1-0 lead. We had been stagnated to that point. It put us on the board, and you don't see those every day." Santiago solid, but Twins fall to Sox in extras Rhett Bollinger/Patrick Donnelly MLB.com April 16, 2017 Avisail Garcia continued his blistering start to the season, collecting a career-high four hits, including a go-ahead two-run homer in the 10th, to carry the White Sox to a 3-1 win over the Twins on Sunday at Target Field. The Twins opted to pitch to Garcia with two outs and a runner at third base after reliever Ryan Pressly struck out Jose Abreu. But the decision backfired, as Garcia crushed an 0-1, 98-mph fastball the opposite way to right field for a two-run shot to finish 4-for-5. "The first swing, I just swung hard," said Garcia, who leads the Majors with a.465 batting average. "I said to myself, 'Don't try to do too much. Just put the barrel on the ball,' because he throws hard. So that's what I did." Twins lefty Hector Santiago kept up his strong start to the year with seven scoreless innings, scattering six hits with no walks and six strikeouts. He was stuck with a no-decision, but improved his ERA to 1.47 through three starts. "All around, I pitched good, but the end result wasn't what we wanted," Santiago said. "I pounded the zone and was throwing a lot of strikes with early contact." White Sox right-hander James Shields was also solid, surrendering one run on five hits and three walks and striking out five over six innings. The lone run Shields allowed came on Brian Dozier's first career inside-the-park homer in the fifth. "He's a competitor, he's a pro," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said of Shields, who lowered his ERA to "He wants to show everybody that he's still the guy who can go out there and give you a chance to win a ballgame." The White Sox tied it at 1 in the eighth on a sacrifice fly from Matt Davidson off reliever Matt Belisle, scoring Abreu from third. Byron Buxton didn't quite set his feet before the throw from center, and it bounced off the mound, allowing Abreu to score. MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Garcias combine to make Twins pay: Leury Garcia started the rally in the 10th with a leadoff double off Pressly, before he was bunted over to third. The Twins decided not to intentionally walk Abreu, but Pressly came through with a strikeout. They weren't as lucky with Avisail Garcia, as his two-run homer left the bat at mph and went a projected 388 feet to right, per Statcast. "It's a situation where we all know how hot [Avisail Garcia] is," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "I'm not huge on walking guys to get to other people. I thought we had a guy in there with the stuff to get out of it. But he obviously left a ball up that Garcia could handle." Dozier races around the bases: Dozier missed Saturday's game with a sore right knee, but proved he was healthy with his inside-the-park homer. Dozier hit a 1-2 cutter from Shields into deep center field. It hit off Jacob May's glove and rolled along the warning track toward right field as Dozier circled the bases. Dozier reached home in seconds, the 10th-fastest inside-the-park homer tracked in the Statcast era (since 2015). "I saw it the whole way," Dozier said. "When I saw it kick off to the right, I decided to get to a second gear. I couldn't get to fifth gear, but got it to a different gear." SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS Dozier's inside-the-parker was the 52nd in Twins history, and the first since Buxton's against the White Sox on Oct. 3, It was also the second in Target Field history, joining Eduardo Nunez, who did it last year on June 2. 2

3 WHAT'S NEXT White Sox: Left-hander Derek Holland (1-1, 1.50) will look for his third straight quality start as the Sox travel to New York to face the Yankees on Monday at 6:05 p.m. CT. Outfielder Melky Cabrera will return to the active roster after missing three games due to paternity leave. Twins: The Twins remain home to host the Indians in a four-game series that begins on Monday at 7:10 p.m. CT. Right-hander Kyle Gibson (0-1, 8.00 ERA) starts for the Twins, looking to bounce back after being hurt by a grand slam in his last start against the Tigers. Adrianza set for first extended spring game Rhett Bollinger MLB.com April 16, 2017 Twins infielder Ehire Adrianza, who has been on the 10-day disabled list with a right-oblique strain since March 30, is set to play in his first extended spring training game on Monday. Adrianza suffered the injury on a swing during Spring Training on March 25, and he has been rehabbing at the club's complex in Fort Myers, Fla. But he's progressed enough to play in a game Monday, and he is expected to go on a rehab assignment later this week. "Yesterday was a little bit of a back-off day for him with some conditioning and field work," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "He's scheduled to play three or four innings tomorrow, and we'll get a couple at-bats in an extended game." The Twins will have an interesting decision to make when Adrianza is healthy, as he's out of Minor League options. The Twins already have backup infielders Eduardo Escobar and Danny Santana on the 25-man roster, and they're both out of options as well. Escobar is off to a strong start offensively, while Santana offers value because of his versatility, as he can play center field, unlike Escobar and Adrianza. Adrianza is a career.220/.292/.313 hitter, better known for his defense at shortstop in four years with the Giants. He could be a candidate to be designated for assignment once healthy. He'd have to pass through waivers to remain with Minnesota in that scenario. Adrianza was designated for assignment by both the Giants and Brewers in the offseason, getting claimed by the Twins on Feb. 6. The Twins have a short bench, carrying a 13-man pitching staff, but if they're going to drop a pitcher in favor of a position player, it's more likely they'd go with a power bat such as Kennys Vargas or ByungHo Park than a third utility infielder. However, Park isn't on the 40-man roster and is currently on the Minor League disabled list with a hamstring strain. Molitor also said he doesn't believe going down to 12 pitchers is imminent. Worth noting Second baseman Brian Dozier, who missed Saturday's game with a sore right knee, returned to the lineup as leadoff hitter on Sunday. Park will head to Fort Myers as part of his rehab. Twins general manager Thad Levine said Park has a mild hamstring strain, and the hope is Park will be back in days. Lefty Stephen Gonsalves, the club's No. 2 prospect per MLBPipeline.com, has been slowed by shoulder soreness. He flew to the Twin Cities to have it checked by Twins doctors, but everything came back clean. Gonsalves is throwing from 90 feet as part of his throwing program. Closer Glen Perkins (labrum surgery) has been throwing every three days in Fort Myers, but he will head to Minnesota soon to rejoin the team. Right-hander Trevor May (Tommy John surgery) will rejoin the Twins in Texas on April 24 to start his rehab. Twins, Gibson open season series with Tribe William Kosileski MLB.com April 16, 2017 The Twins were one of the few teams to give the Indians trouble during their American League pennant run in Cleveland will get another crack when the teams open a four-game series at Target Field on Monday. Though they finished last in the AL Central at , the Twins won nine of the 19 games against the Indians last season. Each team scored 92 runs in the season series. Indians right-hander Danny Salazer will make his third start of the season in the series opener. He's coming off a strong outing against the White 3

4 Sox on Wednesday, when he allowed two runs on four hits and tied a career-high with 11 strikeouts. But Salazar was handed his first loss of the season, as the Tribe fell, 2-1. In three starts against the Twins last year, Salazar gave up 13 runs (12 earned) on 14 hits, including five home runs, in 10 2/3 innings for a ERA. Salazar's counterpart Monday, Twins right-hander Kyle Gibson, was tagged with his first loss of the season in his last start after allowing five runs on four hits in four innings against the Tigers on Wednesday. Gibson pitched relatively well in the game, but allowed a grand slam to Tigers utility man Andrew Romine in the fourth inning. Gibson has gone 2-3 with a 6.40 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 45 career innings vs. Cleveland. Three things to know about this game Max Kepler was a headache last season for Tribe pitchers. In 54 at-bats against the Indians in 2016, the Twins outfielder hit six home runs and drove in 12 runs while posting an OPS of.909. Kepler had a four-hit game with three home runs -- including two off Salazar -- and six RBIs last Aug. 1 at Progressive Field, which he followed up with another home run and two more RBIs against the Indians the next day. Monday will mark Salazar's first start against the Twins since Sept. 9, when he sustained a forearm injury that ended his regular season. The only other action that Salazar saw following this injury last season came as a reliever in Games 2 and 6 of the World Series against the Cubs. In 50 2/3 career innings against the Twins, Salazar has posted an ERA of 4.80 ERA with 57 strikeouts. Although he has gotten off to a rough start offensively this season, Indians catcher Yan Gomes has had success against Gibson in his career. Gomes has posted a slash line of.438/.471/.938 with two home runs, two doubles and four RBIs in 16 career at-bats against Gibson. Against the Twins in his career, Gomes has posted an.854 OPS and hit 12 homers and 11 doubles with 35 RBIs. Despite Brian Dozier's inside-the-park home run, Twins fall to White Sox in 10 innings Phil Miller Star Tribune April 17, 2017 The go-ahead run was at third base Sunday, Twins infielders were drawn in, and White Sox slugger Jose Abreu waited ominously at the plate. Ryan Pressly challenged him with one fastball after another, 97 mph, then 98, then 98 again. Finally, he tried an 86-mph slider, and Abreu swung helplessly. Strike three. Whew. What a relief. Take a deep breath. Just one thing. We always talk about not letting your guard down, making that second out count, manager Paul Molitor said. That strikeout doesn t do any good if you don t finish the inning. And therein lies the problem: Pressly may have won the main event, but he lost the undercard. Almost before Twins fans could relax after Abreu stalked away, Avisail Garcia smacked one of those fireballs into the third row of the right-field seats, a crushing blow that delivered the White Sox a 3-1 victory and deflated what could have been an exceptional weekend for the Twins. Doggone it. When you look back at it in July and August, these are some of the games I feel like we have to win, said Brian Dozier, who provided the entirety of the Twins offense with get this an inside-the-park home run, the first of his career. We have to push more runs across when we have the opportunity. We re fine, but we could easily have flip-flopped and won the series. No doubt about that, considering the Twins outscored Chicago 8-5 over the three days in Target Field, yet lost two of the three and fell out of first place. Coincidentally, both losses were absorbed by Pressly, who allowed a tiebreaking home run to Matt Davidson on Friday. That struck his teammates as a little strange, because Pressly is the Twins hardest thrower. You could see he s throwing 97, 98 on the corner, on the black, said Hector Santiago, who used his still-formidable 93-mph fastball to shut out Chicago over seven innings. He ll make adjustments, he ll be fine. His stuff is electric. It s just that Avisail is swinging the bat well, better than I ve ever seen. That s certainly true. Garcia went 6-for-12 in the series and is now leading the AL with a.465 average a fact that had Molitor ruminating, before even being asked, about whether he should have walked the White Sox right fielder once Abreu struck out. I thought he might be due to make an out, Molitor deadpanned. We all know how hot he is, but I m not huge on walking guys to get to other people when I think my guy s got the stuff to get him out. But obviously [Pressly] left the ball up where he could handle it. Tough one to swallow. 4

5 It was, but the responsibility doesn t lie only with the bullpen. The Twins collected seven hits and four walks on Sunday, but only three of those eight baserunners ever advanced beyond first base, and none after Dozier s inside-the-park adventure in the fifth inning. The Twins loaded the bases in the fourth inning, their biggest threat by far, but Byron Buxton left them stranded by striking out. The White Sox had plenty more threats, putting the leadoff runner on base four times, and the first two batters on in two different innings. But Santiago reacts to difficult situations like a Marine jumping out of an airplane you see danger, he sees a challenge. Santiago held the Sox to 0- for-7 with runners in scoring position, extended Chicago s scoreless streak to 18 innings (a stretch they ended against Matt Belisle in the eighth) and reduced his ERA to an amazing With that kind of pitching, it s a little hard to believe the day ended so badly. All year, we ve been one pitch away, one hit away, from winning every game, Santiago said. We ve got nothing to put our head down about. We re grinding. We re playing really well. Brian Dozier 'surprised' by inside-the-park homer Phil Miller Star Tribune April 17, 2017 Brian Dozier was only a couple of steps past second base Sunday when he received Gene Glynn s go-ahead. Dozier s stride grew longer as he churned around third base and passed Glynn s windmilling arm, sending him home. His chances of scoring right there were just like on a base hit, I thought, Glynn said of his instant, and daring, decision. When he was part way around second, I thought he had a really good chance, so nothing made me stop him. The baseball beat him to home plate but was 6 feet up the first-base line, so White Sox catcher Kevan Smith caught it and dived headfirst, arms reaching toward home plate, almost at the same moment Dozier did the same from the other side. Dozier s left hand brushed across home plate a split-second before Smith could get there. And suddenly Dozier s 119th career home run stood apart from all the others: the product of his speed, not his power. When I saw his hand waving, I saw him really excited. I put it in a different gear, said the Twins leadoff hitter. I was kind of surprised [since there were] no outs, but you take shots. It worked out. Even Paul Molitor wasn t sure that Dozier would try it, even after his deep fly ball in front of the bullpens deflected off Jacob May s glove and bounced down the warning track toward straightaway center. No outs, you don t want to be overly aggressive, Molitor said. But the relay man was a long way out there, and Gino made the right call. It was an exciting play. A rare one, too. The Twins had two inside-the-park home runs last year, by Eduardo Nunez and Byron Buxton. There have been only five in Target Field history, Nunez s the only one by a Twin. Not bad for a player who missed Saturday s game because of a bruised knee. But Dozier texted Molitor Easter morning to assure his manager he was healthy again, then proved it by running for the trainers and coaches, Glynn included, before the game. Twins are showing signs of life while the Wild nears its final breaths Michael Rand Star Tribune April 17, 2017 Three thoughts from a weekend that got a lot of hockey players a lot closer to fishing and golf season: If we can now look at the evolution of this Wild-Blues series with the benefit of hindsight, it s becoming clear that Game 1 was a damaging loss in so many ways. It wasn t just that Blues goalie Jake Allen stole the opener at Xcel Energy Center by making 51 saves wiping out home-ice advantage gained over 82 games with just one dominant performance. It wasn t just that losing that game meant the Wild needed to win four of the next six, a daunting task. In addition, that game created an illusion about the series. Fans and perhaps even players themselves came out of that game thinking Minnesota was clearly the better team and that once Allen was solved the series would turn. 5

6 Instead, Games 2 and 3 were far more evenly matched. Allen was still brilliant, but the Blues overall stifling defense a trademark of coach Mike Yeo was just as important. If the Twins are going to break through at some point in the future to become a consistent contender, they likely are going to need some of their high-end young pitching talent Jose Berrios and Co. to develop into top-of-the-rotation starters. To bridge the gap between 2017 and the time some of those promising arms are truly ready for the big leagues, though, it s no secret they need some of their higher-priced veterans to come through. Through 12 games, three of those pitchers are doing just that. Ervin Santana, Phil Hughes and Hector Santiago three of the Twins five highest-priced players overall and their three most expensive pitchers this season have combined for 52 innings and just nine earned runs allowed this season. Santana pitched well last season but received little run support in winning only seven games. Hughes was hit hard early before his season ended with injuries. Santiago was ineffective in initial starts after being acquired for Ricky Nolasco but pitched well enough down the stretch to be brought back. Among Santana, Hughes, Nolasco and Santiago last season, only Santana had an ERA below 5.00 for the season and the Twins received just 15 total victories from those four pitchers. They might eclipse that win total before the end of May this year. History suggests Santana, Hughes and Santiago won t stay on their current trajectory for the entire season, but even if the runs allowed come up a bit while the innings stay the same, it would go a long way toward making 2017 a relative success while charting a course for more success in the future. The Twins offense entered Sunday tied for the MLB lead in walks (53), and it s no secret those free passes have fueled a lot of rallies for the team. Also of note, though: The team has cut way down on strikeouts. The Twins entered Sunday with 84 the seventh-fewest in MLB. That s a far cry from last season when they fanned 1,426 times the sixth-most in MLB. ByungHo Park going to Florida for injury rehab assignment Phil Miller Star Tribune April 17, 2017 ByungHo Park s strained right hamstring is believed to be on the mild side of such injuries, Twins General Manager Thad Levine said Sunday, but just to be safe, the Korean slugger will get out of the cool weather of upstate New York and head to Florida to rehab. He will start ramping up activities a little more, Levine said. We will start trying to get him at-bats in extended spring games eventually. Park pulled up at second base after hitting a ninth-inning double for Class AAA Rochester last Monday and was placed on the disabled list a day later. The Twins believe this is tracking toward one of the shorter-term hamstring injuries, but that still means he ll miss 10 to 14 days, Levine said. In other injury news, Levine said: Lefthander Stephen Gonsalves was in Minneapolis last week to have his shoulder examined after experiencing a recurrence of the soreness that kept him sidelined for two weeks during spring training. A magnetic resonance imaging test found no damage, but the Class AA pitcher remains on the disabled list. Nonroster infielder Ehire Adrianza, stricken with a strained oblique during the final week of spring training, is ready to begin playing games in Fort Myers. He ll take part in extended spring training for several days, and then be assigned to a minor league team likely Class A Fort Myers for an official rehab stint. Once he s healthy, the Twins must decide whether to put him on the 40-man roster or designate him for assignment and hope he clears waivers. Glen Perkins continues his every-third-day throwing program, but the Twins plan to bring him to Minneapolis to reconnect with his teammates before long. Perkins is on the 60-day disabled list following shoulder surgery a year ago and cannot be activated until June. 6

7 Long ball gets Ryan Pressly again in Twins 3-1 loss to White Sox Mike Berardino Pioneer Press April 16, 2017 For the second time in a lost weekend, promising Twins reliever Ryan Pressly gave up a very costly home run to the opposite field. Sunday afternoon it was Avisail Garcia, who has been hotter than Georgia asphalt in August, taking him deep on a 98-mph fastball. That two-run homer with two down in the 10th inning sent the Chicago White Sox to a 3-1 win and a series victory at Target Field. Just got to tip your hat to him, Pressly said. He hit a pretty good pitch. I thought the pitch was up. He was a little behind on the first one, so I thought I could sneak another fastball by him. He s a dangerous guy. He proved that. On Friday night, Matt Davidson hit an 89-mph Pressly slider out to right in the seventh inning of a 2-1 loss. Ervin Santana s complete-game onehitter on Saturday kept the Twins from suffering their first series sweep of the season. Moments before Garcia connected, Pressly (0-2) struck out Jose Abreu on a slider with the go-ahead run on third. That left the White Sox hitless in 17 at-bats this weekend with runners in scoring position and 0 for 32 in the clutch against the Twins going back to last weekend at Guaranteed Rate Field. Davidson is hitting.370 with three homers on the year, so Twins manager Paul Molitor opted not to walk Garcia, who left town hitting.465 with a combined on-base/slugging percentage of We all know how hot he is, but I m not huge on walking guys to get to other people when I feel my guy has got the stuff to get him out, Molitor said. Obviously he left the ball up where he could handle it. Tough one to swallow. Not a good loss by any means because we had chances. Earlier, Brian Dozier showed his right knee is just fine, thank you, flying around the bases with the first inside-the-park home run of his career. Rookie center fielder Jacob May failed to glove Dozier s fifth-inning rocket to the warning track, and the ball caromed far enough away near the wall that third-base coach Gene Glynn never hesitated about sending Dozier. In Target Field s eight seasons, Dozier s was just the second inside-the-park homer by a Twin. The other was by Eduardo Nunez last June 2 against the Tampa Bay Rays. It was the 52nd inside-the-parker all-time for the Twins. A resurgent James Shields limited the Twins otherwise through the first six innings. Byron Buxton s bases-loaded strikeout in the fourth would be their only at-bat all game with runners in scoring position. An 18-inning shutout streak for Twins pitchers ended with Davidson s game-tying sacrifice fly off reliever Matt Belisle in the eighth. That scored Abreu, who absorbed a 3-2 slider with one out and took third on Garcia s long single off the wall in right. Buxton gloved Davidson s fly in medium center, but his throw hit the mound and kicked right. Left-hander Hector Santiago worked seven shutout innings against his original club on just six hits with six strikeouts. Santiago started 19 of 28 hitters with strikes and used a livelier fastball than normal to keep the White Sox from diving at pitches on the outer half. The 28-year-old Pressly, he suggested, might need to make a similar adjustment. He was throwing (mph) on the black, Santiago said. I mean, great pitches, but sometimes you ve got to keep those guys honest and pound in. We talked about that in spring training. We worked on it in our bullpens where we were throwing to both sides of the plate. Santiago said he s been there before. That was me sometimes last year, he said. You beat a guy and you want to beat him again. Sometimes you want to go, but you definitely have to get them off the plate. That way that pitch away is effective. He s going to be fine. His stuff is electric. 7

8 Dozier went even further in expressing support for Pressly, now in his fifth season. It s definitely a fluke, he said. I tell him all the time. I can see how sharp his stuff is. He s got some of the nastiest stuff on our staff. Tough couple games, but he ll be back out there (Monday). Anthony Swarzak witnesses another Minnesota Twins low-hit game Mike Berardino Pioneer Press April 16, 2017 Just three one-hitters or better have been thrown for the Twins over the past decade. Anthony Swarzak has been on hand for all of them. The veteran right-hander watched Ervin Santana s one-hitter on Saturday from the Chicago White Sox bullpen. He also was on the South Side of Chicago when Francisco Liriano threw the last Twins no-hitter on May 3, That same month, back at Target Field, Swarzak worked the first eight innings of a combined one-hitter with Matt Capps and Alex Burnett on May 28. He took a no-hitter into the eighth inning before Peter Bourjos, then of the Los Angeles Angels, pulled a first-pitch slider past third baseman Danny Valencia for a one-out double. Swarzak, 31, brought up that connection this spring when Bourjos, a veteran outfielder, was in White Sox camp. Absolutely every chance I got, Swarzak said with a laugh Sunday morning. I just asked him if he remembered breaking up my no-hitter. He said, Of course I remember. I said, I really appreciate that man. My career could have been a lot different if you just would have taken that darn slider. Swarzak, a 2004 Twins second-rounder with just 32 starts in the majors, remembered making that 105-pitch spot start on short notice. I got a start on a whim, he said. I got told at 10 o clock the night before that I was starting. I took a no-hitter into the eighth inning. It was a fun night. He managed to strand Bourjos to keep the game scoreless long enough for the Twins to win 1-0 in 10 innings. Swarzak, who received no decision, has the game ball from his combined one-hitter displayed at his offseason home in South Florida. I wish it would have been a no-hitter, he said, but it s all right. DOZIER RETURNS Twins second baseman Brian Dozier returned to the lineup after a one-day absence following a clear MRI on his right knee Saturday morning. Asked if Dozier s knee would require close monitoring, Twins manager Paul Molitor laughed. Not according to him, he said. He texted me early this morning and said he was good. He says he knows his body and has no issues, so he s back in there. Dozier mentioned feeling a heaviness in his knee to team trainers while running out a seventh-inning grounder on Friday night. The top of his kneecap didn t feel right after that game, but tests showed no structural damage. I followed up with the trainers to make sure they were OK with that, Molitor said, and I think he s doing some (physical tests) just for peace of mind for the trainers more than anything. GONSALVES PASSES TEST Double-A Chattanooga left-hander Stephen Gonsalves, the Twins reigning minor-league pitcher of the year and top-ranked pitching prospect, recently traveled to the Twins Cities for a full workup on his ailing left shoulder. No structural damage was found, and Gonsalves has resumed a throwing program and progressed out to 90 feet. Troubled by weakness in his throwing shoulder off and on since last October at the Arizona Fall League, Gonsalves has made one appearance 8

9 since a four-out relief outing on March 3 in Clearwater in his first big-league camp. After that camp game on the minor-league side, Gonsalves was shut down again with a recurrence of discomfort, Twins general manager Thad Levine said Sunday. Gonsalves, 22, was a fourth-round pick in 2013 who has gone with a 2.13 earned run average in 70 pro outings. The recent battery of tests was ordered to make sure the Twins weren t missing anything, Levine said. SO CLOSE But for a little luck, Santana could have three career no-hitters. In addition to his no-no on July 27, 2011 at Cleveland, he also threw a one-hitter against the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 16, Justin Upton s first-pitch single with two outs in the seventh broke up the no-hit bid. It was a clean single up the middle, Santana recalled. (Shortstop) Erick Aybar was playing him toward the hole. One of six Dominican pitchers with a big-league no-hitter, Santana could put his name atop the list with one more lucky day. As it stands, he s tied with Juan Marichal (1963), Ramon Martinez (1995), Jose Jimenez (1999), Ubaldo Jimenez (2010) and Francisco Liriano (2011). Pedro Martinez took a perfect game into the 10th inning in 1995 but lost it on Bip Roberts leadoff double. It s luck, he said. It s not going to happen very often. If you re going to have it that day, you re going to have it that day. John Hester caught Santana s other one-hitter, which required 102 pitches, while Bobby Wilson caught his 105-pitch no-hitter. It took Santana 107 pitches to complete Saturday s gem, marred only by Omar Narvaez s one-out single in the third. BRIEFLY Infielder Ehire Adrianza, out since March 25 with a strained oblique, is scheduled to play three or four innings in the field and take a couple atbats on Monday at extended spring training. The hope is to start his rehab assignment soon thereafter. Lefty reliever Ryan O Rourke (flexor mass) has progressed to 60 feet on his throwing program ByungHo Park (mild hamstring strain) will head to Fort Myers to continue his rehab in a controlled weather environment, Levine said. Lefty reliever Glen Perkins, who continues to throw bullpens every third day, will fly to the Twin Cities soon to reconnect with the team as he ramps up his rehab following June 23 shoulder surgery. Right-hander Trevor May, coming off March 22 Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow, will rejoin the team during its upcoming series in Texas (April 24-26). Dr. Keith Meister, the Rangers team physician, performed May s surgery and will see him for a follow-up visit. Wetmore s 5 thoughts: Dozier s speed, a strong starting staff, focus on Buxton Derek Wetmore ESPN 1500 April 16, 2017 The Twins on Sunday got a fine pitching performance from Hector Santiago but couldn t score enough to avoid a bad outcome, when the White Sox won in extra innings, 3-1, to take the series from the Twins. This column presents 5 thoughts from Sunday s game. 1. The Twins start to the season has surprised some people. The Minnesota Wild, meanwhile, have fallen behind 3-0 in their best-of-7 playoffs series. So, which of these two things is more likely: The Wild erase the deficit and punch a ticket to the next round; Or the Twins win the American League Central? A reader posed that question Sunday afternoon, and I looked into it. At the time of the writing, FanGraphs was giving the Twins a 2.2% chance to win the division. Historically, teams have advanced from the Wild s position just 1.96% of the time. It s more nuanced than that, of course, 9

10 and you can read the column if you re interested in the idea. Technically I d say the answer is about equal odds, but we ve got to recognize that it s one of those just-for-fun questions. There s no actual way of knowing either answer. 2. Aesthetically, triples are one of the prettiest plays in baseball, if you ask me. In terms of excitement, inside-the-park home runs have to be on par. Brian Dozier, ladies and gentlemen. He s going to hit home runs this summer, and this one counts just as much as the ones that leave the yard to find a new home in the left field bleachers. I ve been impressed with Dozier s speed so far this season, especially stealing bases. He s got five of those already. The reason I like triples better than in-the-parkers is that nobody has to screw up to make a triple happen. One player can combine coordination, anticipation, speed and a little luck to move himself to third base. Round trippers typically need a weird bounce or a mistake from the opponent. 3. Ervin Santana was excellent in a one-hit shutout Saturday, and Hector Santiago followed that with a fine performance. Santiago lasted 7 innings with 6 hits, and no runs allowed. He shaved his ERA to 1.47 on the season, and Minnesota s starting staff as a whole now owns a 2.66 ERA through the first dozen games of the year. Raise your hand if you saw that coming. Another encouraging sign from Santiago: He didn t walk a batter and he got 6 strikeouts, including two punchouts in the 4th inning, when he d let two runners on with nobody out. Especially the third out was impressive to me. Santiago went right after Kevan Smith with three sinkers, and got the out on a swinging strike up the zone to strand White Sox runners at second and third base. Allow me to be the first to offer the opinion that the starting staff won t have a 2.66 ERA by the end of the year. That shouldn t diminish what the group has accomplished so far this season, especially Santana and Santiago. 4. Byron Buxton is going to continue to be a story until something gives. He was 0-for-3 with a walk and two more strikeouts Sunday. His non-strikeout out was a deep fly ball to left field, so that s perhaps some progress. It has started to feel a bit like Buxton needs one authoritative hit to get a good feeling back at the plate. I can t imagine it s a good feeling going through him when he walks up to the plate right now. That was especially true in the 4th inning, when the Twins had the bases loaded with two outs. James Shields put Buxton behind in the count right away with a couple curve balls, and then tried to bounce a pitch in the dirt to get Buxton to chase for strike three. Buxton didn t bite but to me the fact that pitchers are throwing such ridiculous two-strike pitches is an indication of what they think of Buxton s ability to lay off right now. They re trying to get away with highway robbery, although Buxton doesn t always give in. In that particular case, Buxton left three Twins runners stranded on the bases by swinging through another curveball. He s going to have to make more contact if this is going to work out for him at the plate. I think he can. But if you re the Twins you ve got to be unsettled right now by the thought of Buxton not panning out as a Major League hitter. 5. Speaking of Buxton, he was involved in a play that allowed Chicago to tie the game in the 8th inning. With one out, Matt Belisle hit Jose Abreu with a full-count breaking ball that didn t break as much as the veteran righty wanted it to. Avisail Garcia moved his teammate to third base with a single to the outfield, and Matt Davidson followed with a fly ball to center. Buxton parked under it and got ready for the inevitable tag to the plate. In addition to his top-end speed, Buxton has a really great arm, which is what made the 8th-inning showdown all the more exciting. If Buxton could cut down the run at the plate, not only would it preserve a one-run lead for the Twins, but there d be another play to point to and suggest Buxton s incredible defense is saving the Twins some runs in the field, even while his bat is costing them runs at the plate. But Buxton didn t make a good throw. His pellet into the infield skipped a few times and was off line to the third base side, which prevented Jason Castro from being able to tag the slow-footed Abreu. That run tied the game at 1-1 and forced extra innings, where the White Sox eventually won it. 10

11 Better odds: Twins win A.L. Central or the Wild come back to win series? Derek Wetmore ESPN 1500 April 16, 2017 The Wild lost another tough game to Mike Yeo and the St. Louis Blues, and the chances are slim that they come back from a 3-0 series deficit. I joked about those odds on Twitter and that was met with a question that I think was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. It got me *Googles: What are the odds of winning a series when Higher odds: Wild coming back from 0-3 or the Twins winning the AL Central? Good question. Should make for a fun thought experiment. So, just for simplicity, let s agree that we re not going to answer this question scientifically, or fully, to anyone s satisfaction. That kind of answer is just unknowable. (And if it was knowable, sports would be a whole lot less fun.) But we can use some reason in our answering method. First up, the Twins. Minnesota won 7 of its first 11 games. Sunday s loss makes the team 7-5, a significant improvement from last season s 0-9 start to the year. The hot start is one of the early surprises of the baseball season, and it has some people locally wondering: Are the Twins for real or is this just a hot stretch? Now, I m not going to say the Twins can t have a good summer. Of course they can. I will just say that I d be surprised if the ERA for Minnesota s starting rotation remains better than 3.00 for a full season. (It s currently 2.66 after Hector Santiago s good start Sunday.) Let s set aside whether or not I think the Twins will win the division, and we ll turn to some people much smarter than me. Entering Sunday, the Twins were near the top of the division and everybody s winter favorite, the Indians, were in last place at 5-7. At the time of this writing, FanGraphs.com projected that the Twins have a 2.2% chance of winning the A.L. Central. FanGraphs still sees the Indians as the overwhelming favorite, and they give the Tigers a much better chance than the Twins to win the division. The Royals also have a better chance of winning the division, according to those projections. If you re a Twins fan hanging onto hope, you ll find solace in the fact that the Royals couldn t handle the Twins in the opening series, and if Minnesota can beat up on division opponents, they ll be in a much better position than they were last year. And hey, if that pitching continues to hold an ERA under 3.00, that 2.2% projection eventually will jump over the summer. Earlier in the week, I had written about the Wild s 1-0 deficit and the percentage chance they recover to win the series, based on historical precedence. Back then, I suggested that a 1-0 deficit was no big deal. But I ll gladly concede that needing to win four games in a row down 3-0 in a Best-of-7 series is, in fact, a big deal. If history is an indication, the Wild are more or less doomed. For one thing, they have to win on the road twice, and the margin for error is gone. For another, Blues goalie Jake Allen has been exceptionally good this series. It s anecdotal, but that s going to be a tough thing to overcome for Minnesota. And lastly, there have been 204 instances of NHL teams trailing 3 games to none in a playoff series. Those teams have recovered to win the series just four times, according to Hockey-Reference.com. It s happened before, in other words, about 1.96% of the time. Will the Wild pull off the feat? It s not impossible but definitely improbable. 11

12 Santiago pitches seven shutout innings in Twins loss to White Sox Associated Press April 16, 2017 With a runner at third and two outs in the 10th inning, Avisail Garcia swung hard and missed on the first pitch he saw against Minnesota reliever Ryan Pressly. Garcia stepped out of the box, collected himself and thought about what s worked this season: just put the bat on the ball. Garcia had a career-high four hits, including an opposite-field, two-run homer in the 10th that gave the Chicago White Sox a 3-1 win over the Twins on Sunday. I said to myself, Hey, don t try to do too much,' Garcia said. Just put the barrel on the ball because he throws hard. That s what I do. I just tried to put a good swing, see the ball and hit it. Leury Garcia doubled off Pressly (0-2) leading off the 10th and advanced on Tyler Saladino s sacrifice. Jose Abreu struck out and Garcia drove a high fastball over the seats and into the right field plaza. It s a situation where we all know how hot he is, but I m not huge on walking guys to get to other people and I feel my guy s got the stuff to get him out with, Minnesota manager Paul Molitor said. Obviously, he left the ball up where he could handle it. Tough one to swallow. Nate Jones (1-0) struck out two in a perfect ninth, and David Robertson fanned his first two batters in a th for his third save in three chances. Garcia entered the year hitting.262 through five major league seasons, but the 6-foot-4 Venezuelan increased his league-leading average to.465. I think he s focusing on just making good contact, White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. I can guarantee you he didn t go up there thinking he was going to hit a homer. He just wanted to get a pitch to hit. With a man that strong, you put a good swing on a ball and you click it, it s got a chance to go. DOZIER S RUN Brian Dozier hit an inside-the-park home run for the Twins, the first of his career and the first for a Minnesota player since Byron Buxton on Oct. 2, 2016 in Chicago. A day after sitting out to due to right knee swelling, Dozier raced around the bases after his fifth-inning drive deflected off center fielder Jacob May s glove. EXCELLENT EEPHUS White Sox starter James Shields yielded five hits and three walks in six innings for his third consecutive strong start this season. The most curious aspect of Shields outing was the slow breaking ball he was throwing. He had a few pitches register in the high 60s mph, and the stadium s video board labeled the offerings Eephus pitches. It s kind of funny; I ve never seen that before, Shields said. Just a slower curveball. I ve kind of messed around with it a little bit. I feel like I ve got a pretty good feel for it, so I ve been throwing it a little bit more than normal. SANTIAGO AGAINST THE SOX Twins starter Hector Santiago gave up six hits in seven innings, walked none and struck out six. Santiago is 5-1 against Chicago, where he pitched the first three years of his career after being drafted there in He s allowed six earned runs in 38 2/3 innings against the White Sox. 12

13 TRAINER S ROOM White Sox: 3B Todd Frazier did not play because of flu-like symptoms. Renteria said Frazier has been feeling dehydrated. He missed two games last week, and returned, leaving Saturday s game early with recurrence of the symptoms. Twins: INF Ehire Adrianza (right oblique strain) will report to Fort Myers, Florida, to begin playing in extended spring training games on Monday.... LHP Ryan O Rourke (left forearm strain) has been throwing at 60 feet and his next step will be to toss from 90 feet. UP NEXT White Sox: Chicago s three-city trip ends in New York, where LHP Derek Holland (1-1, 1.50 ERA) is to start Monday against the Yankees. Holland allowed one hit in six scoreless innings in his last outing. Twins: RHP Kyle Gibson (0-1, 8.00) starts Monday as Minnesota opens a four-game home series against Cleveland. Gibson surrendered five runs in four innings in a loss to Detroit last week. Twins scheduled starting pitchers could be good sign for the Tribe Associated Press April 16, 2017 A pair of teams with struggling offenses will face off when the Minnesota Twins host the Cleveland Indians on Monday to begin a four-game series at Target Field. The Twins are coming off a 3-1, 10-inning loss to the Chicago White Sox, who took two of three games in the weekend series at Target Field. Avisail Garcia, who leads the majors with a.465 batting average, hit a two-run home run in the top of the 10th inning off Minnesota reliever Ryan Pressly. The Indians also dropped two of three at home over the weekend, including 4-1 loss to Detroit on Sunday. The Indians could only manage one run in six innings against Tigers left-handed starter Matthew Boyd. Cleveland has struggled against left-handed starters this season, which is not good considering the Indians have faced six of them so far this season. Boyd and fellow Detroit lefty Daniel Norris limited Cleveland to one run in 12 innings in the series. We re just not getting it done, Indians outfielder Brandon Guyer told MLB.com. It s tough, especially when Carlos (Carrasco) pitched such a good game (Sunday). We re in the game and we had chances. Not coming through, it s not fun. Carrasco told the (Elyria, Ohio) Chronicle-Telegram, We re going to have some ups and downs this early in the season. Now we go on the road and go from there. The Twins offer the Indians a bit of a respite in that department as Minnesota is scheduled to start four righties in the series. Kyle Gibson will get the start in Monday s series opener a day after Minnesota s lone left-handed starter, Hector Santiago, pitched against the White Sox. Gibson, who is 2-3 with a 6.40 ERA in nine career starts against the Indians, made some changes to his delivery in the offseason in response to back problems in 2016 and looked good in spring training. However, Gibson is just 0-1 with an 8.00 ERA through his first two regular-season starts. He said the key has been execution, or lack thereof, in big situations. I ve given up six of the runs on three swings, and I should be a pitcher that stays away from the long ball, Gibson said. I never should give up three home runs in the first two starts; I need to keep the ball in the ballpark, and if I m able to do that, obviously the beginning of the season is drastically different. The Indians will counter with right hander Danny Salazar, who is 3-3 in 10 appearances (all starts) with 4.80 ERA against Minnesota. 13

14 Salazar, 0-1 with a 4.63 ERA in two starts this season, will face a Minnesota lineup that has had troubles of its own. Byron Buxton (four hits this season), Eddie Rosario (six), Joe Mauer (eight) are all hitting.190 or below. The Twins rank 10th in the American League in batting average (.233) and in slugging percentage (.375). One upside for Minnesota was the return Sunday of second baseman Brian Dozier, who didn t play Saturday due to a sore right knee. An MRI exam found no structural damage. 14