KANSAS CITY – Following a series of reinforcements, the Twins feel better about their bullpen than they have all year. On Thursday night, the upgraded group finally got a chance to protect a lead.
It wasn’t the new pitchers bringing this one home, but make no mistake, they factored into it just the same. A night after the Twins’ three newest relievers combined for three effective innings, three of their already present stalwarts brought home a much-needed 4-3 win against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
Kody Funderburk, Andrew Morris, and Yoendrys Gomez combined for three shutout innings with one hit, one walk, and four strikeouts, with all of them pitching on more rest than they’ve been used to lately. Funderburk got the win in relief, Morris recorded his 17th hold, and Gomez picked up his 15th save behind Bailey Ober.
All three of those relievers, but especially Morris and Gomez, have been critical in protecting late leads for the Twins all year. But they didn’t have enough help prior to the Deadline, and part of the point of adding Jeff Hoffman, A.J. Minter, and before them Tommy Nance was to avoid pushing them too hard.
It looks like a pretty good relief corps, finally.
“It’s huge,” said manager Derek Shelton. “I think the one thing that we talked about at the Deadline was being able to lengthen out our bullpen. I think tonight you saw a really good version of that. Fundy comes in in a deficit game and does a nice job. Then Mo comes in, and Gomez. … We’ve talked about adding Minter, adding Nance, adding Hoffy, it lengthens it out so we could do that.”
Brooks Lee’s go-ahead two-run single in the eighth inning ended days of offensive frustration, putting the Twins 'pen in position to secure the lead. Minnesota pulled back within three games of the White Sox in the American League Central race, and is one-half game behind the Rangers for the third Wild Card.
Ober pitched six effective innings with an unusual line – no walks or strikeouts – but left trailing by two runs because the Twins couldn’t muster much against Kansas City starter Michael Wacha.
But as they did twice against the Royals at home last week, the Twins battled back. Royce Lewis drilled a solo homer off Wacha in the fifth, part of a night of hard contact for the resurgent infielder. Then in the eighth, the visitors rallied.
Josh Bell poked a one-out RBI single to make it 3-2, and two batters later Lee singled through the right side for the lead. The Twins snapped a four-game losing streak with the victory. They had scored four runs in their past 25 innings before the rally in the eighth.
“That's this fricking game,” said Lee. “It's going to beat you down. I feel like it's been beating us down but luckily we scraped away with a win. We were smoking balls all over the place. They keep getting … caught, which is brutal. I'm glad we got it.”
The back end of the Minnesota bullpen took it from there. Morris pitched a 1-2-3 inning against the dangerous top of the Royals order, and Gomez finished it off for the save, with the inning turning on his pickoff of pinch-runner Tyler Tolbert.
Gomez was pitching for the first time since Sunday, while Morris hadn’t appeared in a game since Saturday. They weren’t needed as the Twins tried to keep it close one night earlier, meaning they were good to go this time.
It may not be a perfect bullpen, but it’s significantly upgraded, and looking up to the task of protecting leads in a pennant race.
“It's very important and good to see the new additions to the bullpen,” said Gomez. “Good arms, high-leverage arms and it's all in the name of helping the team win games. It's always a good thing.”