Philadelphia Phillies (63-37, first in the NL East) vs. Minnesota Twins (55-44, second in the AL Central)Minneapolis; Tuesday, 7:40 p.m. EDT.Minnesota has a 28-20 record at home and a 55-44 record overall. The Twins have the 10th-ranked team ERA in the AL at 4.13.Philadelphia is 63-37 overall and 26-21 on the road.
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Twins top Phillies 7-2
The Phillies have the fourth-best team on-base percentage in the majors at .329.The matchup Tuesday is the second time these teams square off this season. TOP PERFORMERS: Carlos Santana leads Minnesota with 14 home runs while slugging .433. Carlos Correa is 11-for-38 with four home runs and seven RBI over the past 10 games.
Alec Bohm has 33 doubles, a triple, 11 home runs and 71 RBI while hitting .296 for the Phillies. Trea Turner is 14-for-39 with five home runs over the past 10 games. LAST 10 GAMES: Twins: 5-5, .247 batting average, 3.62 ERA, outscored by three runs. Phillies: 5-5, .252 batting average, 5.48 ERA, outscored by two runs. Phillies: 5-5, .252 batting average, 5.48 ERA, outscored by two runs.
INJURIES: Twins: Kody Funderburk: 15-Day IL (oblique), Carlos Correa: 10-Day IL (foot), Chris Paddack: 15-Day IL (forearm), Jose Miranda: 10-Day IL (back), Kyle Farmer: 10-Day IL (shoulder), Royce Lewis: 10-Day IL (abductor), Brock Stewart: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Alex Kirilloff: 10-Day IL (back), Justin Topa: 60-Day IL (knee), Daniel Duarte: 60-Day IL (tricep), Anthony DeSclafani: 60-Day IL (elbow)Phillies: Brandon Marsh: day-to-day (elbow), Zack Wheeler: day-to-day (back), Luis Ortiz: 60-Day IL (ankle), Spencer Turnbull: 15-Day IL (back), Taijuan Walker: 15-Day IL (index finger), Michael Rucker: 60-Day IL (hand), Dylan Covey: 60-Day IL (shoulder).
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota starter Bailey Ober rebounded from Bryce Harper’s two-run homer in the first to settle in for seven innings, and the Twins beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-2 on Monday night.
Ober (9-5) threw only 83 pitches and retired 17 of his last 18 batters, getting a double-play grounder to erase the lone baserunner in that stretch. The 6-foot-9 right-hander gave up four hits and one walk and improved to 4-1 with a 2.23 ERA in his last six starts. “He looked great,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You could almost make an argument to just leave him in the game and let him keep throwing.”
Cole Sands finished with two scoreless innings for the Twins, who held the Phillies to one hit in their last 27 at-bats.
Willi Castro had an RBI single in the third and Manny Margot hit the go-ahead two-run single in the fifth against Phillies starter Ranger Suárez (10-5), who lost his fourth straight decision and failed to finish the sixth inning for the third time in his last four starts. Despite Suárez’s recent slide, the Twins were particularly proud of their production against the seventh-year left-hander.
Suárez, who gave up seven hits and one walk in 5 1/3 innings, was one of eight Phillies selected as All-Stars. He didn’t pitch in the game because of back spasms, however, and his ERA has risen from 1.36 to 2.87 over the last two months. The Phillies had him on an 85-pitch limit. “Much better,” manager Rob Thomson said. “The velocity was a little bit better than it was in his last couple starts. I thought he landed his breaking ball when he needed to behind in the count, and he put the breaking ball where he wanted to on his put-away pitches.”
Carlos Santana added an RBI double in the seventh and Max Kepler hit an RBI single to spark a three-run eighth for the Twins (55-44), who stopped a three-game losing streak and moved within four games of first-place Cleveland in the AL Central. That’s the closest they’ve been to the lead since May 17.After the first pitch was delayed by 90 minutes due to a severe storm that soaked the downtown ballpark, Harper followed a single by Trea Turner with his hardest-hit ball of the season. The 424-foot homer that landed in the right-field gathering space was measured at 113.8 mph off the bat by MLB’s Stat cast data.
The eight-time All-Star and two-time NL MVP, who has 23 homers and 65 RBIs this year, played at Target Field for the first time in his 13 seasons to check the boxes on all 30 current major league ballparks. The Twins lugged into the game an ominous 2-19 record against opponents with currently superior records: the Orioles, Guardians, Dodgers, Yankees and Brewers.The only other club in that category is of course the baseball-best Phillies (63-37), who strutted into their first visit to Target Field in eight years with the best team ERA in the major leagues and a top-five placing in most hitting measures.
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