5 things that stood out in the Twins' Game 2 win over Houston
The Twins dumped the Astros 6-2 behind the brilliance of Carlos Correa and Pablo Lopez on Sunday night, leveling the best-of-five ALDS one apiece with the Astros. Here are five things that stood out...
1. Carlos Correa climbing postseason charts
Correa drove in three runs in Game 2, giving him 63 RBI in his illustrious postseason career. That ranks third in MLB postseason history since 1920. Here's the top five:
- Bernie Williams: 80 RBI
- Manny Ramirez: 78
- Carlos Correa, David Justice: 63
- Derek Jeter, David Ortiz: 61
- Albert Pujols: 54
"Wow. That's awesome, man. Thanks for sharing that with me," Correa told Tom Verducci on the FS1 postgame show. "I gotta let that sink in to see how I feel because I grew up idolizing them."
2. Royce Lewis gifted two balls in key at-bat
With runners at second and third and one out in the fifth inning, Lewis loaded the bases with a walk in an at-bat in which Valdez appeared to get robbed of two pitches that should've been called strikes. In fact, according to Baseball Savant, the second and fourth pitches in the at-bat were called balls when they were in the zone for strikes.
Pitches 2 and 4 in the chart above were called balls when they were in the strike zone. The color of the pitches in the chart are pitch types. Green represents changeups thrown by Valdez.
A few pitches later Correa delivered a two-run single to give the Twins a 5-0 lead.
3. Safety squeeze with Royce Lewis at third?
Credit: Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports
This play had Twins fans wondering if the Twins has Lewis's health in mind because they attempted a safety squeeze with Lewis at third base and one out immediately after Correa drove in two runs with his single in the fifth inning.
Lewis was questionable for the playoffs because of recent hamstring injury and he's unable to run full speed. Regardless of that fact, the Twins asked Ryan Jeffers to bunt and Lewis wound up in a pickle between third and home, forcing the guy with the bad hamstring to start and stop and eventually get tagged out during the rundown.
Maybe Lewis's hamstring is closer to 100% than anyone knows? Do-Hyoung Park, who covers the Twins for MLB.com, noted how good Lewis looked running from first to third on Correa's two-run single. Either way, Lewis appeared no worse for wear after the hot box.
4. Twins pitchers brought the heat
Twenty-three of the 30 fastest pitches of the night came from Twins pitchers, including the two guys who were throwing bullets in the eighth and ninth innings, Brock Stewart and Jhoan Duran. In fact, the 14 fastest pitches all came from Stewart and Duran.
- Duran 101.4 mph
- Duran 101.3 mph
- Duran 98.8 mph
- Stewart 98.8 mph
- Stewart 98.6 mph
- Stewart 98.5 mph
- Stewart 98.5 mph
- Stewart 98.3 mph
- Duran 98.1 mph
- Stewart 98.1 mph
- Stewart 98.0 mph
- Stewart 98.0 mph
- Duran 97.9 mph
- Stewart 97.9 mph
- Duran 97.5 mph
What's funny is that all but one of those pitches above from Stewart were fastballs. He had one sinker to Jose Altuve clocked at 98.0 mph. But Duran 98.8 mph splitter (which he calls a "splinker") was the third-fastest pitch of the game. He threw three other splitters at 98.1, 97.9 and 97.5 mph, respectively.
5. Sonny Gray gets day game start Tuesday
The victory gives the Twins home field advantage for the rest of the series with Games 3 and 4 in Minneapolis on Tuesday and Wednesday. Temps will be in the 50s with sunny skies expected for both games, and the fact that Game 3 starts at 3:07 p.m. CT should favor Gray.
Gray has made 13 starts in day games this season and he owns a sparkling 1.80 ERA in those starts. Opponents are hitting .185 against him with a .510 OPS in day games.
What's more is that Gray has made two starts against Houston this season and he allowed just four runs on nine hits with 16 strikeouts in 13 innings.
Christian Javier will start for Houston and he has a 5.17 ERA on the road this season,
