Los Angeles, California. The Twins are playing the Dodgers in the regular season for the 18th time in their history. They have lost eight-straight to the Dodgers, dating back to April 30, 2014 and their only regular season or postseason win here came on June 11, 2005. They have not won here in 6,268 days, their longest drought in any ballpark in their history.
But they are leading the Central Division in the American League with a 57-51 record. They are looking for a ray of hope in tonight’s starter, Joe Ryan. He is leading AL rookies in wins, strikeouts and innings pitched. He also ranks second in opponent batting average (.215).
Ryan and the Twins will face a Dodger team that is 30-5 since June 29 and a pitching staff that has allowed the fewest runs in all of baseball this year. LA is 5 games ahead of the New York Yankees for the best record in Major League Baseball and are as deep as the ocean at every position.
The Dodgers wasted little time in showing just how hard it is to pitch to this lineup. Ryan gave up 1 run in the first inning and then 3 in the second inning. A barrage of line drive singles and 4 equally hard line drive doubles led the way. Add in a Max Muncy home run and it was 5-1 Dodgers after 3 innings.
Dodgers starter and Latino Sports 2021 Pitcher MVP Award winner, Julio Urías, Culiacan Rosales, Sinaloa, Mexico, came in with a record of 11-6, 2.57 ERA and is in the middle of another quality season.
Urías finished with a line of 7 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, 0 walks and 8 strikeouts. He threw 90 pitches, 72 for strikes! He again pitched with outstanding command and control on all his pitches. He improved to 12-6 as the Dodgers thumped the Twins 10-3. They had 15 hits of which 8 were doubles, the 2nd time they have done that in a game this year.
Top to bottom this Dodger lineup is consistently putting runs on the scoreboard. Add outstanding pitching and this is the scariest team in baseball.
