DETROIT – The past few weeks have been a tumultuous one for right-handed twins Sonny Grey. Before last week’s All-Star break, he lost his pitching coach and favorite catcher within a week.
But the veteran starter is getting his impact, he said, and proved it with a small feat against the Detroit Tigers on Sunday.
Gray restricted Detroit to two hits and one run in six innings, and seven Twins hitters scored at least one run as Minnesota won the two-game series with a 9–1 victory at Comerica Park.
Gray improved to 5-3 by dismissing seven Tigers batsmen and brought his earned run average to 3.52 . reduced to
“It was fun, it was too much. I felt relaxed,” Gray said. “I felt free and easy and I just wanted to have fun.”
It was a fun weekend for the Twins, who scored a combined 17 off 23 hits in their first two games from an unusually long, five-day All-Star break. Gray spent three rest days at home with his family before returning for a workout and bullpen session in Minnesota last weekend.
Gave a 3–0 lead before touching the mound, Gray faced the minimum through three innings, before allowing a run on Eric Haase’s two-out, single-eye single through short made it 3 -1 made. That was his only hiccup.
Gray last won a game on June 27 with an 11–1 victory in Cleveland, one of the last games in Minnesota for former pitching coach Wes Johnson, who left to take the same job at Louisiana State. was. Four days later, Johnson was replaced by bullpen coach Pete Mackie. Then Grey’s favorite catcher, Ryan Jeffers, was lost to a fractured thumb that would require six to eight weeks of rest before starting rehab work.
But Gray and catcher Gary Sanchez started getting on the same page during their 12-2 loss to the White Sox on July 14. It was Gray’s shortest stint of the season, 3⅔ innings, but he felt he was headed in the right direction.
Which lasted till Sunday.
“I like it,” said Gray. “I’m feeling a little more comfortable with my situation than I am going forward, a little more comfortable with it lately. So that’s a good thing.”
As they did in Saturday’s 8-4 win, the Twins put pressure on Detroit from the start, and put three on board in the first against Ronnie Garcia (3-3). The right-handed batsman left with pain in his right shoulder after a 2⅔ innings.
Sánchez and Jose Miranda scored a run each, and Luis Arrez, Jorge Polanco, Max Kepler and Gio Ursella scored each as the Twins extended their American League Central to three games over second-placed Cleveland. .
“These two games are the way you want to start the second half,” said Carlos Correa, who scored a single and runs under Haase’s tag after Max Kepler’s grounder in the first. “The bat was on fire, there were really good batsmen around. And you see our pitcher did a great job. So it’s definitely a good start for the second half.”
Arrez led the major leagues with a batting average of .341 for 1 with a walk and an RBI single in the seventh of three runs. Miranda was dismissed for two runs for 3 wickets. He went into a run when he was hit off the Garcia pitch with a loaded base in the third, and added an RBI single to left fielder Corey Clemens in the ninth.
“It feels great to be in Detroit and play a few games, score a lot of runs,” Miranda said.
The Twins broke the game with a sixth run of three off reliever Michael Fulmer. Miranda scored a single and scored in the left field corner on Ursella’s double, and Ursella scored a single by Arrez. Arrez went into second in a wrong throw home and scored on Polanco’s sharp single to right field for a 6-1 lead.
Griffin Jacques, Jharrell Cotton and Joe Smith each played a no-scoring innings for the Twins, who are locked in on Monday and begin the two-match series in Milwaukee on Tuesday.
“Flat out, we did what we wanted to do,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “We came here and pushed the envelope a little bit, but stayed within ourselves in some ways, but hit the balls well and forced our pitchers to throw strikes. … the at-bats were really good, and Sonny was excellent.”
