Twins complete the sweep by destroying Matt Harvey and the Angels

Angels 7 Twins 16 (AKA - I came back from vacation for this???)

Matt Harvey was handed the ball in this one, a ball that was promptly sent over the wall - again and again and again. Harvey had been coming off two solid starts but that was against the Orioles and Royals. Throw him in against a good team and games like today happen.

Harvey did have a clean 1st inning but unraveled fast and the Twins hammered him in the second inning. He did eventually escape that inning with 6 runs allowed. Brad Ausmus sent him back out for the 3rd because that’s what you do with your starter. Unfortunately, Harvey had other plans, including serving up a 2 run bomb to C.J Cron. In the end, Harvey would throw 49 pitches and serve up 8 runs and 8 hits over 2.2 innings. It also wasn’t just Harvey that contributed to this train wreck:

The Twins had lefty Marin Perez on the mound and he did lefty things against the Angels. David Fletcher didn’t get the “can’t hit lefty” memos and took Perez deep in the 3rd inning. Mike Trout also hit a double, making it all the way to 3rd base and he was knocked in by a Pujols double a few moments later. That was all the offense the Twins could muster in this one. Or was it??

Unfortunately it was a much more fun game to talk about if you are a Twins fan. C.J. Cron had himself a 5 for 6 day (his 4th 4+ hit game of 2019) and was a triple shy of the cycle. Jonathan Schoop and Miguel Sano each had a pair of home runs. Thanks to Noe Ramirez and Jonathan Lucroy, Max Kepler also finally managed to steal a base in his 4th attempt.

Did you stick around until the end in this one? If you did, you were rewarded with the pitching debut of Jared Walsh plus an Angels offensive outburst that included a Goodwin homer, 3 walks, and a Tommy La Stella grand slam. Thanks Austin Adams! 11 home runs in this game, 23 runs, and 28 hits. Welcome to 2019 baseball.

If you missed this game, you are in luck. Here is a pitching recap in gif format: