The night after the Minnesota Twins got their first walk-off home run of the season, they sent their ace to the mound to try and clinch the series against the National League East leading Atlanta Braves. That wasn't meant to be, as Jose Berrios had perhaps the worst night of his career, helping the Braves tie up the series at a game apiece with their 12 to 7 victory over the Twins.
Image courtesy of FanGraphs
Berrios: 5.2 IP, 9 H, 9 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, 64.9% strikes (63 of 97 pitches)
Home Runs: Cruz 2 (32), Garver (21), Rosario (24)
Multi-Hit Games: Cruz (4 for 5, 2 HR), Rosario (2 for 5, HR)
WPA of +0.1: None
WPA of -0.1: Berrios -.271
It didn’t take long for the Braves to respond to last night's walk-off home run, with a home run of their own. On the first pitch of the game, Ronald Acuna Jr. took Jose Berrios deep to give the Braves a quick 1-0 lead. I guess this is what Acuna was jogging in for last night while Miguel Sano’s home run was still in the air.
The Braves were able to get to Berrios again in the top of the third. After an Acuna walk, and an Ozzie Albies single, Freddie Freeman went deep for the second time in this series. However, unlike the one last night that needed every inch to get over the wall in left, this one was crushed well over the center field wall.
After adding another run in the fifth, the Braves blew the game open with six runs in the top of the sixth. The innings looked like it wasn’t going to amount to anything, as two of the first three Braves to come to the plate in the inning struck out. However, that was followed by the Braves going single, single, triple, single, double, single, before Adam Duvall struck out for the second time in the inning. When all was said and done, the Braves had an 11-0 lead, with nine earned runs charged to Jose Berrios. That is the most earned runs Berrios has allowed in his entire professional career.
The bats finally woke up for the Twins in the bottom of the sixth inning. Nelson Cruz got the scoring going with this blast.
After an Eddie Rosario single, Mitch Garver followed with a no-doubter of his own, trimming the Braves lead all the way down to… well 11-3.
The Twins threatened with a couple of two-out walks later in the inning but were unable to tack on any more runs. However, the Twins weren’t done scoring quite yet. In the bottom of the seventh, Max Kepler and Jake Cave led off with a couple of singles, setting the stage for Nelson Cruz to hit his second home run of the night, and 16th home run since the All-Star Break.
The Braves tacked on another run in the top of the eighth, thanks to three more hits from the middle of the Brave order. In the bottom of the ninth, Eddie Rosario took new Braves closer Shane Greene deep to the opposite field for the Twins fourth home run of the night.
Bullpen Usage
Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days:
Next Three Games
Wed vs ATL, 12:10 pm CT (Fried-Perez)
Thu vs CLE, 7:10 pm CT (TBD-TBD)
Fri vs CLE, 7:10 pm CT (TBD-TBD)
Last Game
Twins Game Recap (8/5): May Throws Fire, Sano Launches a Walk-Off Bomb in Twins Win