Most hitters thrive with the bases loaded, because pitchers become tentative, fearful of making mistakes. But this season, Gio Urshela is the exception, managing only one hit, a one-run single, in 11 such situations.
Twins beat Red Sox 4-2 as Gio Urshela breaks through with bases-loaded double
Urshela's hit into the right-field corner scored Carlos Correa, Luis Arraez and Jose Miranda in the fifth inning and led to the Twins' fourth consecutive victory.
August 30, 2022 at 11:43AM
Until Monday.
With two outs in the fifth inning, Urshela batted with three teammates on base, each of them after drawing walks. The Twins third baseman ran the count full, then reached out and poked Josh Schreiber's slider into the right-field corner. All three scored on Urshela's double, and the Twins rode that big hit to their fourth victory in a row, 4-2 over the Red Sox at Target Field.
It's the sort of timely hit that was missing last week in Houston, and explains the wildly different mood that exists in the Twins clubhouse since then, especially now that their four-game deficit in the AL Central has been whittled to only 1½ games behind Cleveland. The Guardians, idle Monday, open a three-game series with wild-card contender Baltimore on Tuesday.
Urshela has quietly been a reliable run producer since arriving via trade just before spring training opened, and his 53 RBI rank third on the Twins behind fellow infielders Jorge Polanco and Jose Miranda. So his odd 1-for-11 success rate with the bases loaded — albeit with four sacrifice flies — hadn't matched his overall production and appeared to be a product of random chance.
"Really? I would have guess he's hitting .400," said Miranda, who actually is hitting .500 with bases loaded. "I guess that's why we trust him."
And perhaps that's why Red Sox manager Alex Cora summoned Schreiber, a righthander with an unusual arm angle, to face Urshela with Boston's lead in jeopardy. Schreiber quickly fell behind 3-and-1. Urshela fouled off a low strike, but he didn't miss the next pitch. By the time Alex Verdugo tracked down Urshela's line drive, Luis Arraez, Carlos Correa and Miranda had scored.
"He kind of slows everything down. We say, this is what you look for in a baseball player, the low-pulse type of low anxiety, can play the game no matter what it going on around him," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "He almost settles in better when there are fans on their feet, in a big moment."
The hit prevented Dylan Bundy's second consecutive loss. The righthander allowed nine hits and a walk and retired only 14 batters, but Boston kept squandering opportunities, managing only two runs and three times leaving a runner stranded on third base.
When he departed in the fifth inning, the Twins' finish-a-win corps of relievers — Thielbar, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax and Jorge Lopez — retired 13 of the final 14 Red Sox hitters. The Twins bullpen has given up only three runs over its past 22 innings.
"That is some insane stuff going on out there when he takes the mound," Baldelli said, and Twins fans probably can guess who he's talking about: Duran, who blew away Boston's 2-3-4 hitters in the seventh inning on 15 pitches, six at more than 100 miles per hour.
The 14th of those pitches was a splitter to Rafael Devers that missed well inside, but still was notable: At 100.8 mph, Twins pitching consultant Josh Kolk announced to the team, it was the first breaking ball in major league history ever timed in triple digits.
"Whoa. I'm jealous. That's unheard of," Bundy said. "Apparently, nobody's ever done that, we just found out. He deserves a cake."
The Texas Rangers have accomplished one of their primary offseason goals with a deal to re-sign Nathan Eovaldi, the winning pitcher in their 2023 World Series clincher.
