MIAMI – Sam Dyson was up early Thursday morning to fly from Philadelphia — where his old team, the Giants, were playing — to Miami to meet his new Twins teammates.
He arrived at Marlins Park around the third inning. By then he had spoken to manager Rocco Baldelli by phone. He then talked to him in the dugout once he arrived, then again when Baldelli gave him the ball in the ninth inning.
"I think he asked me if I was able to go and I told him I was fine," Dyson said. "[That's] about it."
Then the impostor took the mound and proceeded to give up a walk, a single, a double and another walk and set the stage for the Marlins to score three runs and force extra innings, before Harold Ramirez's walkoff homer off Cody Stashak in the 12th gave Miami a 5-4 victory.
He had to be an impostor, right? The Dyson the Twins traded for had a 2.47 ERA for San Francisco and had walked only seven batters in 51 innings. That's the player the Twins acquired for three minor leaguers.
Dyson began the inning by walking leadoff hitter Curtis Granderson — only Dyson's eighth walk of 2019 — with some pitches well off the plate.
Martin Prado followed with a single, putting runners on first and third. Then Jon Berti doubled to left-center, scoring Granderson and putting the tying run in scoring position. Dyson then issued another walk to Brian Anderson to load the bases. That forced Baldelli to remove Dyson for Taylor Rogers, who had pitched in the previous two games.
"Didn't execute, didn't get the job done," Dyson said. "These guys went after it … we had the lead. I didn't do my job as part of the team. That's a bad first impression. Hopefully there's no more of those."
If the Dyson who spoke with reporters Thursday is who he says he is, he will be a key part of the Twins' strategy to finish off games. Sergio Romo, acquired Saturday from the Marlins, did his part by pitching a 1-2-3 eighth against his old team. Romo into Dyson into Rogers will be a typical progression on the mound if the Twins lead in late innings.
"You can question yourself on our end, decision-making-wise, on what ifs and things like that, but he's going to pitch in big spots like that for the rest of the year so I thought it fit well," Baldelli said. "We had Romo up in the seventh and therefore made it pretty easy to make the decision to bring him in in the eighth because he was already up and hot, so he went out there and did a nice job.
"We were going to try to stay away from Rog if possible, if we could [Thursday], so I thought it made sense to get Dyson up."
The Twins had one baserunner over the final five innings after giving starter Michael Pineda a 4-1 lead behind a leadoff homer by Max Kepler, a two-run double by Byron Buxton in the fourth inning and a sacrifice fly by Eddie Rosario in the fifth. They pinch hit for Pineda after he gave up one run on seven hits and a walk over six innings.
Combined with Cleveland's 7-1 loss to Houston, the Twins maintained their three-game lead in the American League Central and begin a 10-game homestand tonight against Kansas City.
Baldelli looked for Dyson to step in and give Rogers a break. Dyson wouldn't use travel as an excuse for his struggles, although his location was uncharacteristic for how his season has gone.
He will get more opportunities to prove that he is the man he says he is — since the Twins, whose AL Central lead remained at three games when Cleveland lost to Houston later Thursday, identified him as an upgrade.
"It's a great feeling. Obviously they're in first place for a reason," Dyson said of joining the team. "They've got a lot of pieces here that have done well all year. Got a hell of an offense. You don't want to screw the momentum up, you want to help out and do your part, and look forward to [Friday]."
