{"id":274742,"date":"2023-08-14T09:51:23","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T14:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=274742"},"modified":"2023-08-14T11:58:02","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T16:58:02","slug":"twins-ride-gray-6-ip-to-shutout-victory-vs-phillies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=274742","title":{"rendered":"Twins ride Gray (6 IP) to shutout victory vs. Phillies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MN Twins-\u00a0Sonny Gray<\/a>\u00a0lounged in front of his locker before the series finale, casually tossing a baseball in the air and catching it, like a kid killing time in his backyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gray made it look almost that easy once the game started, allowing just two hits while striking out seven across six scoreless innings, and the bullpen held on, as the Twins defeated the Phillies, 3-0<\/a>, on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gray was nearly flawless, aside from the second inning, when he loaded the bases before striking out reigning NL home run champ Kyle Schwarber. After Gray left the game, Griffin Jax loaded the bases for the same guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OK, so maybe this one wasn\u2019t as easy as playing catch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gray was at 80 pitches and had just worked a perfect sixth inning, so it was a bit of a surprise to see Jax enter following the seventh-inning stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The right-hander allowed a pair of one-out singles and then hit rookie Johan Rojas. That loaded the bases for Schwarber, who has hit 76 home runs over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the trainers checked on Rojas, manager Rocco Baldelli summoned lefty Caleb Thielbar. Thielbar retired Schwarber with an infield popup. He ended the threat by striking out Alec Bohm looking on a full count, with an inside fastball that Bohm thought was ball four. The third baseman slammed his bat and was ejected from the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Thielbar’s] a fearless guy,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cHe goes at people, just like Sonny did. That\u2019s big-time stuff. Going in [that situation], the crowd\u2019s into the game against really good players and he just beat them. I like giving him the ball. I think everyone around here likes when we give Caleb the ball, because you know what you\u2019re going to get.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation was reminiscent of Gray\u2019s second inning, which began with a four-pitch walk to Bryson Stott. Gray struck out Trea Turner before Jake Cave grounded a single to center field to put runners on the corners. After another strikeout, Gray hit Rojas, the Phillies’ No. 9 hitter, to load the bases for Schwarber. Gray struck out Schwarber swinging on a 3-2 fastball to end the inning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was me vs. you,\u201d Gray said. \u201cI\u2019m going to get you or you\u2019re going to get me. I\u2019m going to come after you with my strengths and we\u2019ll see what happens. That moment was just me vs. you. Right here. Let\u2019s see who wins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you hit a grand slam, you hit you a grand slam. But I\u2019m not going to give in. That was pretty much it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gray made it sound simpler than it was. The Phillies had been averaging 5.14 runs per game since the All-Star break, and they opened the series by scoring 13 runs against the Twins. Minnesota has now won two straight after dropping four in a row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to have to come through when there\u2019s some people on base,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cYou look at their lineup, there\u2019s a lot of good hitters. There\u2019s generally going to be a productive hitter at the plate. You\u2019re going to have to make some pitches to be able to hold them down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MN Twins-\u00a0Sonny Gray\u00a0lounged in front of his locker before the series finale, casually tossing a baseball in the air and catching it, like a kid killing time in his backyard. Gray made it look almost that easy once the game started, allowing just two hits while striking out seven across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":272399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=274742"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274751,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274742\/revisions\/274751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/272399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=274742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=274742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=274742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}