Twins 5, Guardians 4: World’s worst bullpen wins bullpen game

Before any game action today, a quick shoutout to all the Moms out there this 2026 Mother’s Day! I just returned from a trip with my mom to see the Twins in Washington, D.C.! I calculated that she has now seen 10 baseball stadiums (one I’ll never get to—Metropolitan Stadium). It probably helps to have a baseball die-hard son (haha). I pity the fool who doesn’t think of their mother today…

Baseball-wise, the Minnesota Twins—for the second consecutive Lord’s Day—threw their rag-tag bullpen assemblage out to the mound from “Play Ball!” and somehow again came away with a victory.

The Twins struck first in the top of the third inning when a Kody Clemens double was pushed to third base by a Brooks Lee single—and then Kody scampered home on a Guardians SP Gavin Williams heave to the backstop.

The lead didn’t last long—a Jose Ramirez (who else) single scored Brayan Rocchio in B3—but MN second-man-out-of-the-pen Kendry Rojas induced an Angel Martinez fly out to the warning track with the bases loaded. Phew!

In T4, a Ryan Jeffers double and an Austin Martin single seemed to be cooking up more runs—until a Luke Keaschall GIDP doused the fire.

Fortunately, T5 brought more action—and actual scoreboard movement! Clemens again started the rally with a 2B, then scored this time on a Lee 1B. Royce Lewis then chipped in a 2B of his own to score Lee. After two outs, it looked as if the inning might fizzle with nothing further—until Josh Bell cracked a 1B plating Lewis and Martin thought “hey, that was fun—let me try it!”. 5-1 Twins!

After Rojas departed mid-B5 after some really solid (if wild) work, RP Travis Adams’ two-out BB came back to haunt on a Daniel Schneeman RBI single. Once again, however, a Twins reliever wriggled out of a bases-loaded jam to keep the damage to a minimum. 5-2 Twins.

A Chase DeLauter 1B pulled CLE to within two runs, but Anthony Banda put down further rebellion. 5-3 Twins.

As they are wont to do, Cleveland continued chipping away—this time a DeLauter RBI ground-out in B8. Yet again, this time it was Luis Garcia dousing a RISP threat. 5-4 Twins.

That is where the score would stay, with Yoendrys Gomez (who I’m sure you’ll remember on the ‘26 Sporcle roster quiz) recording the save with a 1-2-3 ninth.

Your Final: Minnesota Twins 5, Cleveland Guardians 4

For the first time since September of 2023, the Twins have won a series at Progressive Field. The combination of Morris, Rojas, Adams, Banda, Garcia, & Gomez held Cleveland to 4 runs. While perhaps unremarkable by other clubs’ standards, after a week of MN bullpen blow-ups it was truly a remarkable thing to behold.

Go call your Mom and tell her the Twins won!