2020 virtual ALDS: Twins vs. Indians
The Twins and Indians meet for the right to advance to the ALCS
Having failed to stay with the Minnesota Twins down the stretch of the AL Central race, the Cleveland Indians brushed aside the Chicago White Sox in the wild card game to earn the right to meet the Twins in the division series.
The Indians won the season series between the two teams 11-8. They led the division by three and one-half games at the All Star break. But the Twins overpowered all competition with a 46-18 post-break record, pulling away to win the AL Central by eight games with a 109-53 record.
There was no secret to the Twins’ success: it was raw power. Minnesota sluggers pounded out 331 home runs, a major league high. A half dozen Twins topped 35 home runs, led by Josh Donaldson (44), Miguel Sano (43), Nelson Cruz (42), and Mitch Garver (41). Eddie Rosario added 36 and Max Kepler 35.
Jake Odorizzi was 17-7 to lead the team in wins, while Jose Berrios, 3.00, had the best ERA.
Cleveland’s secret was its five-deep rotation. Mike Clevinger won the league ERA title at 2.40, while Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale, Carlos Carrasco took turns mystifying most opposition batters. The Indians were also an exceptional 33-21 in one-run games and 14-8 in extra inning contests.
The Twins came into the series with some significant question marks. Left-hander Rich Hill went 12-3 but was sidelined with tendonitis in September and had to be left off the post-season roster. After clubbing 40 home runs through the season’s first half, Sano tired badly. He hit only four in August and September and was frequently benched.
The Indians faced problems of their own. In particular, third baseman Jose Ramirez fought nagging injuries that threatened to limit his effectiveness against the Twins.
Game 1: The ERA champion
In the series opener at Target Field, Clevinger showed the stuff that brought him that ERA title. He had to because his mound opponent, Berrios, was virtually as good.
Neither team did anything through the first three innings, Clevinger holding the Twins to one baserunner – a walk – and Domingo Santana’s second inning single being the only hit. Finally in the bottom of the fourth, the Twins broke through. Jake Cave punched a base hit into right field, and RBI champion Josh Donaldson showed off Minnesota’s power, sending a Clevinger fastball into the left field seats.
Berrios was still working on his one-hit shutout into the sixth when the Indians offense awoke. Delino DeShields Jr. singled into center, and one out later Jordan Luplow got him home with a double into the right field gap. The next batter was Francisco Lindor, and he lifted a home run to right that put the Indians in front 3-2.
It was all the Indians would get and all they would need with Clevinger on the mound, A double play ball killed a budding threat in the bottom of the seventh, and Clevinger retired the last seven Twins he faced, four of the final five on strikeouts. That gave him a dozen whiffs for the game against just three Twins hits.
Cleveland 000 003 000 — 3 6 0
Minnesota 000 200 000 — 2 3 0
W: Clevinger. L: Berrios.
Game 2: The pivotal ninth
It would be no exaggeration to assert that the entire series pivoted on the second game’s ninth inning. Truth be told it turned twice, each team producing what appeared to be a climactic moment.
The Twins started Jake Odorizzi (17-7, 4.44). He and the Indians were familiar to the point of intimacy, Odorizzi having faced them six times during the regular season. He beat them once, lost to them twice.
Cleveland countered with Aaron Civale (15-7, 3.43), whose development had been one of the highlights of the Indians’ season. His three 2020 appearances against the Twins resulted in one loss, a 5-0 shutout August 5 at the hands of Homer Bailey.
Ramirez’s second inning home run gave Civale a brief lead, but it didn’t last long. In the bottom of that same inning, Civale retired the first two hitters then made the mistake of walking Sano. The Twins exacted the maximum penalty for that error. Max Kepler shot a home run over the wall in center field, Mitch Garver followed with a home run of his own to left, Luis Arraez doubled to the wall in center and Byron Buxton drove Arraez home with another double, the fourth consecutive extra base hit.
Odorizzi controlled the Indians into the sixth. DeShields opened that inning with a base hit, but Cesar Hernandez and Roberto Perez went down harmlessly. Then Odorizzi made a mistake of his own, plunking Lindor with a pitch. Oscar Mercado seized the opportunity, driving DeShields and Lindor home with a double into the right field corner.
When Carlos Santana followed with a line single to left Mercado scored the run that tied the game 4-4.
Ciale left after walking Arraez to begin the seventh, but the impact of that base on balls outlasted his presence. Arraez stole second, then Byron Buxton’s ground ball off reliever Nick Wittgren moved him to third with one out. Jorge Polanco’s fly ball to left was deep enough to allow Arraez to score the go-ahead run.
The Twins sent Taylor Rogers, their 28-save closer, out to preserve that one-run margin in the ninth. But this was not a night for closers. Hernandez touched him for a ground single into right, and when Rogers walked Perez the Indians had the tying and go-ahead runs on base with none out.
Rogers whiffed Lindor to ease the pressure a bit, but not enough. Mercado turned around a high breaking ball and sent it over the wall in deepest center field, a dramatic three-run blast that boosted the Indians in front 7-5.
It also left the Indians within three Brand Hand outs of sweeping the Twins at home and taking a 2-0 series advantage back to Progressive Field. During the regular season, there were few surer things than Hand, who saved 37 games with a 2.18 ERA in 51 appearances.
But this was not a night for closers. Arraez opened the ninth by coaxing a base on balls out of Hand, and Buxton followed with a ringing double into the left field corner. With the tying runs on base, Hand got Polanco to bounce right back to him for the first out.
The second out never happened. Cruz leveled the Twins ultimate weapon at Hand, a three-run walk-off shot down the left field line that made Minnesota an 8-7 winner. Instead of trailing two games to none, the Twins hit the road for Cleveland dead even.
Cleveland 010 030 003 – 7 10 0
Minnesota 040 000 103 – 8 7 0
W: Rogers. L: Hand.
Game 3: Eight home runs
Buoyed by their stunning Game 2 victory, the Twins applied their most potent weapon – the long ball – against the Indians’ pitching. The result was an illustration of why Minnesota won a major league high 109 games.
The Twins called on veteran Kenta Maeda (13-8, 4.20), acquired in an offseason trade, to make the start at Progressive Field. Maeda had made just one start against Cleveland during the regular season simulation, lasting seven innings Sept. 28 and picking up a no-decision in an eventual 7-3 Twins defeat.
The Indians summoned Shane Bieber (15-10, 3.31), winner of the wild card game against the Chicago White Sox five days earlier. It marked Bieber’s fifth start against the Twins in 2020; he was 1-2, having beaten them 10-3 on Sept. 9.
The losses were by scores of 13-5 on April 7 and 6-4 on Sept. 1.
On this day, however, neither starter had his usual stuff. Cleveland got on the board first, scoring in the first inning when Lindor walked, stole second, took third on Mitch Garver’s throwing error, and came home on Jose Ramirez’s fly to deep center.
The Twins unleashed their most reliable weapon in the second when Josh Donaldson launched a Bieber offering into the left field crowd. One inning later they lit up Bieber more thoroughly. Jake Cave opened the third with a ringing double to the wall in center, Byron Buxton singled him to third, and Luis Arraez sent them both across with a two-base hit to the left-center field gap.
Bieber fanned Jorge Polanco and Nelson Cruz, but Garver foiled his effort to escape further damage, rolling a single between short and third that allowed Arraez to come home with the inning’s third run.
Having wounded Bieber, Twins hitters finished him off in the fourth. Donaldson singled and Max Kepler blasted a home run over the wall in deepest right-center. That made the score 6-1 and prompted the summoning of Zach Plesac from the Cleveland bullpen.
Perhaps aided by a brief rain delay that hampered Maeda, the Indians moved to get back in the game in the fifth. With one out, Perez homered, Jake Bauers followed with a single to right and Cesar Hernandez also homered. That made the score 6-4 and signaled Twins manager Rocco Baldelli that it was time for a mound change.
Tyler Clippard replaced Maeda, and one out later Ramirez touched him for the inning’s third home run, this one into the seats in left. Singles by Carlos Santana and Sandy Leon extended the rally, but it died without further production when Clippard got Oscar Mercado on a harmless pop to Sano at first.
The outburst had brought the home team within a run at 6-5, but they would get no closer. When Plesac opened the sixth by walking Sano and Kepler, he was lifted in favor of Oliver Perez, a left-hander whose immediate assignment was to get Jake Cave. Instead, Cave got Perez, sending the Twins’ third home run careening into the right field seats and boosting Minnesota’s advantage to 9-5. In the seventh, Sano pounded a two-run home run, and Polanco added a fifth Minnesota blast to close out the scoring in the ninth.
The 12-5 final thoroughly reflected Minnesota’s offensive violence. Twins batters had produced those dozen runs on just 10 hits, but seven were for extra bases, five of them leaving the yard.
Minnesota 013 203 201 — 12 10 1
Cleveland 100 040 000 — 5 9 0
W. Clippard. L: Bieber
Game 4: More Minnesota power
Needing one more victory to wrap it up, the Twins called on young Randy Dobnak (9-1, 3.38) for the game 4 start. In a combination role of spot starter and longman, the 24-year-old had been sensational during the simulation, working 128 innings.
The Indians, having burned through Clevinger, Civale, Bieber, and Plesac through the first three games, were forced to fall back on their fifth starter, veteran Carlos Carrasco (10-8, 4.39). Carrasco had been brilliant at times, notably in a Sept. 27 1-0 two-hit shutout of the Toronto Blue Jays. He was, however, 0-1 in three starts against the Twins, having lost 7-3 on Aug. 4.
For six innings, Dobnak and Carrasco battled on even terms. Eddie Rosario gave Minnesota an early boost with a first inning home run, but Carrasco steadied and allowed just two hits from the second until the sixth.
Dobnak was even better, surrendering only a second inning single to Carlos Santana and setting down 13 of the first 14 batters he faced. Finally, in the bottom of the sixth, the Indians scratched across a run without benefit of a base hit when Lindor walked, stole second, and came home on Mercado’s fly ball.
But Indians manager Terry Francona lifted Carrasco in favor of his bullpen to start the seventh, and his faith in that pen proved to be Cleveland’s undoing. Arraez greeted Hunter Wood with a ringing double to the wall in center, and Polanco sent the next pitch over that same center field wall for a two-run home run. One batter later, Donaldson took Wood deep again, this time to left.
Suddenly the Twins led 4-1.
And they weren’t through. James Hoyt replaced Wood in the eighth, but Polanco and Donaldson touched him for ninth inning home runs that padded the team’s total by three more runs. That made it easy for Tyler Duffey, working the final two innings, to close out the series.
It was a series in which the Twins had out-homered Cleveland 14-6, 11 of those 14 coming from that fateful ninth inning of the second game onward. Of Minnesota’s 33 hits during the series, 22 had been for extra bases. Indians hitters simply could not keep up. They produced 28 base hits, but only 10 went for extra bases.
dark. Next. Twins avoid major scare with Buxton
Minnesota 100 000 303 – 7 13 0
Cleveland 000 001 000 –1 3 0
W: Dobnak. L: Wood.