Marlins Rally to Beat Twins

At the end of June, there were many people who were conceding the American League Central division title to the Minnesota Twins. At one point, they had an 11 1/2 lead on the Cleveland Indians. However, the Twins did not have a great month of July. The Indians played very well and made up a lot of ground. The lead of the Twins has now shrunk down to three games. It is going to be an exciting battle between these two teams for the final couple of months in the season. Every game is going to have a massive amount of importance.

On Thursday night, the Twins suffered one of their worst losses of the year. In fact, when you consider the opponent and how close the Twins were to winning the game, it very well might be their worst loss of the year. The Twins had a 4-1 lead going into the bottom of the ninth inning against the lowly Miami Marlins. The game was played at Marlins Park. Sam Dyson was brought in to protect the lead for the Twins. Dyson was making his first appearance with he Twins after the team traded for him shortly before the trade deadline on Wednesday. His outing did not go according to plan. He gave up three runs that allowed the Marlins to tie the game and send it to extra innings.

The Marlins would eventually win the game on a home run by Harold Ramirez in the 12th inning. The final score of the game was 5-4. This was a game that the Twins had to have. They had a three run lead against one of the worst teams in baseball. The Indians lost their game to the Houston Astros. This meant that the Twins could pick up a game in the standings with a win.

Dyson had arrived at Marlins Park when the game was already in progress. He had not slept much because he had to fly into Miami after the trade. Therefore, his very poor performance could be explained by his lack of sleep. There is no question that Dyson is going to be a big part of the Twins bullpen for the final two months of the season. Rocco Baldelli, the manager of the Twins, said that one poor outing is not enough to shake his confidence in Dyson. The Twins might not recover from this for a while.