Twins 6, Tigers 3: Joe Jimenez is a mess

The fact that Matt Boyd was on the mound was the only reason to feel good about a game against the Twins. After Boyd left the team in first place, eliminating leader Jorge Polanco and his fourth title in the Major League, the Tigers qualified. Christin Stewart stood out and Nick Castellanos and Miguel Cabrera were hit by a hit-by-pitch and only one, respectively, Brandon Dixon tackled Stewart with a sacrificial fly.

In the third, it was Boyd who was having problems. Byron Buxton chose a point and Boyd then hesitated to replace him. Ron Gardenhire was less than satisfied with the careless call and let himself go by letting out his frustration. Boyd then launched a wild throw that allowed Buxton to take third place and then Mitch Garver to crush a 95-mph heaters located at the top of the box over the fence in the center field -left.

The offensive then recovered in the fourth inning. Miguel Cabrera was quickly mastered by a pair of fast balls Michael Pineda, but when Pineda returned with a slider, Cabrera turned to the left for a double. Brandon Dixon took the plane and Cabrera then surprised everyone by scoring and taking the third place right in front of the Buxton throw from the center of the field. A Ronny Rodriguez double just inside the left-field foul line scored Cabrera and the match was tied to two each.

From that moment, Boyd settled down, showing excellent velocity and a nasty slider. He allowed two hits after two strikeouts on fifth base but rebounded to give Nelson Cruz six goals for his sixth K of the day.

Niko Goodrum rewarded Boyd for his efforts in the lower half of the inning. After an attack by JaCoby Jones, Goodrum drilled a hot soil that Jonathan Schoop, in the second position, could only deflect. He then stole the second goal and advanced to third base on a Stewart field. Castellanos smoked a line to the left to score a goal for Goodrum. Cabrera followed with a ball back in the center for his third hit in as many attempts. In doing so, Cabrera defeated Goose Goslin for 58th place in the standings with 2737 shots. Unfortunately, Dixon offered a 2-0 score on the outside edge of the ball and jumped on top to resume the rally.

Boyd started the sixth in scoring his eighth withdrawal, but the number of throws in a few long runs quickly increased. C.J. Cron came close to the flat and Boyd left a curve too high in a 1-1 count and smoked just enough left for a solo home race tied. Marwin Gonzalez then followed with a single-edged and Boyd seemed to falter. A ball over John Hicks – yes, they called it a wild pitch but they were wrong – allowed Gonzalez to take the second goal. Boyd induced a weak ghost of Schoop and returned to catch Gonzalez in the no man 'land between the second and third. A sluggish slowdown followed, but they eventually put Gonzalez out and Boyd got a lazy ball from Willans Astudillo to end the threat.

The Tigers fell quickly at the end of the sixth and, while his throws were around 100, they needed a new round of Boyd with a day on the board scheduled for Saturday's competition. He had no trouble to oblige. Boyd moved away from the heavy sliders he had offered all night and quickly swept the Twins with fastballs, beating Mitch Garver with a 94 mph heater to end his night with eight strikeouts. Against one of the best faults in the game, three out of nine hits in seven innings count for another great exit from Matt Boyd.

It was the high seas. Joe Jimenez came in eighth and once again did nothing but spill his ball fast. Jiménez rushes to the plate and leaves his arm slightly behind. The fastball does not have the real backspin and stays flat. This is of course exacerbated by the fact that he has completely lost all sensation for the cursor and does not even read it. Instead, he tries harder with the radiator, making things worse, and … you see the idea.

Jimenez gave a solo homerun to our old friend Nelson Cruz, as well as several other hard-hitting balls. The Twins led 5-3 at the end. Without a slider or change, there is no reason to throw it again and again. Jimenez might well need a trip back to Toledo to work his mechanics and experiment with a curved ball. Even at its best, the slider has only been good intermittently and his best slots and arm clearances are better suited to a hook to start with. The raw capacity is still there, but it only has problems right now. It's time to try something else.

After the Tigers collapsed in the eighth, Zac Reininger struggled early in the ninth. He faced four batters and pulled out only one, giving up a point in passing. Daniel Stumpf did a solid job of bailing him out without further damage.

Blake Parker came to close things for the Twins, but he was pretty wild. He took a barred Niko Goodrum between Yellow and Jones and Christin Stewart. After a visit to the mound, Parker rebounded to pull out a force of Castellanos and a line of Cabrera to wrap it.