Fantasy Impact: Casali appeared to injure his hamstring in the fifth inning while rounding the bases after hitting his 10th home run of the season. Kevin Jepsen pitched the ninth for his eighth save. Our doctors will look at it when we get back to Minneapolis. “It’s just better to take (the suspension) now rather than, if you lose the appeal, have them determine when that day would be”, Loney said.
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The Twins won their sixth consecutive game on the road with a 5-3 win against the Rays.
After Suzuki drove in a run on his 200th career double during the second, the Twins tied it at 2 when Sano’s double struck a catwalk around 150 feet above the playing surface.
But Thursday, Boxberger made it as easy as 1-2-3, striking out the three Twins he faced on 14 pitches to secure the Rays’ much-needed, if not must-needed, win.
Curst Casali never has hit as many home runs as he has this year.
In a recent article written by Bill Chastain on MLB.com, Rays’ manager Kevin Cash said the key was that Casali began having “ultra-quality at-bats.”
While the Twins have driven through the jam-packed wild-card standings, Tampa Bay (62-64) is stuck right in the middle. “Catchers tend to have trouble so I was kind of anticipating a ball in the dirt and I got one”. Sam Dyson got Troy Tulowitzki to ground into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the seventh. He just passed Miguel Sano, who had pulled even with Escobar at 37 RBIs in less than half the number of games played.
The Rays (62-64) lost their third straight, giving up a combined 24 runs and 36 hits in the three defeats. In his last six starts, Santana has allowed 31 earned runs in 30 1/3 innings for a 9.20 ERA.
Duffey got defensive help in the third from right fielder Eddie Rosario, who threw out the speedy Kiermaier as he tried to advance from second to third on Rene Rivera’s one-out flyball.
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According to STATS, Escobar became the first Twins SS with at least three homers in a three-game series since Roy Smalley in August 1978 at Seattle…. If Casali is indeed lost for some period of time, his absence will certainly be a considerable one for the Rays.
