Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Friday, July 3, 2015 Gibson
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Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Friday, July 3, 2015 Gibson gets Twins off on right foot vs. Royals. Star Tribune (Miller) p. 1 First hit not much, but Sano says it's first of many with Twins. Star Tribune (Miller) p. 2 Postgame: Molitor hopes Twins learn value of bunting. Star Tribune (Miller) p. 3 Twins will give 16-year-old shortstop Javier record $4 million. Star Tribune (Miller) p. 4 Twins: Trevor Plouffe numb, but arm survives tag collision. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 4 Minnesota Twins: Kyle Gibson stars in shutout of Royals. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 5 Minnesota Twins: Kyle Gibson stars in shutout of Royals. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 6 Postgame Twinsights: Miguel Sano and his movie crew. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 6 Twinsights: Ricky Nolasco receives third opinion on ailing ankle. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 7 Twinsights: Twins outflank big-market clubs for shortstop Wander Javier. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 7 Gibson fires 8 scoreless as Twins blank Royals. MLB.com (Bollinger & Flanagan) p. 8 Sano logs first MLB hit in debut vs. Royals. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 9 Twins rewarded after showing faith in Gibson. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 9 Milone, Twins looking to stay tough on Royals. MLB.com (Wilson) p. 10 Sano enjoys Major taste of winning most of all. MLB.com (Bauman) p. 11 Twins agree with int'l SS Javier on $4M bonus. MLB.com (Sanchez) p. 12 What to expect: Miguel Sano. MLB.com (Mayo) p. 13 Sano’s first hit, although odd, was important for Twins. 1500espn.com (Wetmore) p. 14 Hunter homers twice, Gibson pitches into the 7th as Twins rebound. Associated Press p. 15 Twins calling up power-hitting prospect Miguel Sano. ESPN.com p. 16 Gibson gets Twins off on right foot vs. Royals Phil Miller | Star Tribune | July 2, 2015 KANSAS CITY, MO. – Paul Molitor thinks Kyle Gibson has got some dog in him. That’s a good thing. “We’ve had a few opportunities where you want to try to get your guys to bulldog through tough outs late in games,” Molitor said. “It was tough. He was getting up there in pitches. But I tried to let him ride it out.” Gibson came through like a purebred Thursday, working his way out of an eighth-inning jam, stranding the tying and go-ahead runs and pitching the Twins to a 2-0 victory over the first-place Royals. Gibson gave up only four hits and for the second time this season did not surrender a run over eight innings. The third-year righthander reduced his career ERA against the Royals to 2.20, and he did it despite issuing four walks. But his sinker was working, and Molitor showed faith with the game on the line and Gibson’s pitch count inching above 100. With the Twins up 1-0 and ultrasonic pinch runner Jarrod Dyson having stolen second base and eyeing third, Gibson induced a groundout to third from Alcides Escobar, but then walked Mike Moustakas on a 3-2 sinker. Lefthander Aaron Thompson and righthander Casey Fien were warmed up. Surely Gibson expected to be pulled then? “I knew [righthanded-hitting Lorenzo] Cain was coming up, and I figured they would leave me in there and try to get the double play,” Gibson said. Instead, he got Cain reaching for an outside sinker for a strikeout. But that brought up lefthanded-hitting cleanup hitter Eric Hosmer, who earlier had beaten a shift with a bunt single and walked. Gibson’s pitch count stood at 109 at that point, already his second-highest total of the season. He looked at the dugout. No Molitor. “I don’t want to say I was surprised, because I definitely wanted to pitch against him. But I appreciated it,” Gibson said. “It showed a lot of confidence in me, and allowed me to have a lot of fun out there.” That fun came in the form of a 2-2 sinker that Hosmer bounced harmlessly to Brian Dozier at second base. The shutout was preserved — and the Bulldog was still hungry. “I told them I wanted to go back out for the [ninth] inning,” Gibson said. “They told me that wasn’t going to happen.” Instead, Glen Perkins earned his 26th save with a perfect ninth. Still, it was a nice way to open July for Gibson, whose ERA in June was a subpar 4.70. “He’s had a couple of really good starts lately. He’s developing a really good mentality,” Molitor said. “They weren’t really able to elevate him pretty much all night. He was just making pitches.” That’s good, because the Twins weren’t hitting many from Chris Young and the Royals bullpen. A Kurt Suzuki double and a Danny Santana triple produced one run, but the Twins were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position until adding on an insurance run — on an Eduardo Escobar triple, after Miguel Sano’s first major league hit — in the ninth. Runs were so hard to come by — and they always are against the Royals, who held the Twins to three runs in three games last month in Target Field — that Molitor even had cleanup hitter Trevor Plouffe square around to bunt with Joe Mauer on second base in the sixth inning. Plouffe got down the sacrifice, but Mauer was stranded at third. “These are tough games here,” Plouffe said. “That run felt really important, so I wanted to do whatever the team needed from me.” First hit not much, but Sano says it's first of many with Twins Phil Miller | Star Tribune | July 2, 2015 KANSAS CITY, Mo. – You know Miguel Sano’s reputation. Put a pitch in the wrong place and you won’t see that baseball ever again. But Sano revealed something Twins fans might not know about him Thursday night, during his major league debut: “I’m a little bit fast.” The proof of that was sitting on a shelf in his locker at Kauffman Stadium, the baseball that he, admittedly, dribbled about 50 feet toward third base in the ninth inning, not the most titanic clout of his career. But Sano hustled down the line, beat Mike Moustakas’ throw and ended up with a souvenir that he will present to his mother, Melania, when he sees her in the Twin Cities on Monday. “I’m really happy about my first hit in the major leagues,” Sano beamed after a 1-for-4 night during the Twins’ 2-0 victory over the Royals. “I feel really good.” So good, in fact, that Sano intends never to participate in a minor league game again. “I say, I stay here my whole life,” the 22-year-old Dominican said. “Never send [me] down.” That would be fine with manager Paul Molitor, who hopes that Sano’s presence turns around the Twins’ slow midseason fade. “It’s exciting for my staff and myself and the players,” Molitor said after batting Sano sixth as the designated hitter. “We’re looking for a pick-me-up. We’ve tried a couple different things to jump-start us a little bit. You hope he’s that guy. He’s going to add a presence to that lineup. It’s kind of fun to put his name down and see how it works out.” There were some good signs Thursday, despite his two strikeouts. Sano stung a Chris Young slider to center field in the first inning, but Lorenzo Cain caught it. And he worked the count to 3-2 in both of his next two at-bats before whiffing on sliders, both times with two out and a runner at third — once against Young, once against lefthander Franklin Morales. Hitting breaking pitches been a persistent problem — Sano had 68 strikeouts in 66 games with Class AA Chattanooga this season — but one Sano is honest about, and determined to fix. 2 “Yeah, they’re trouble,” Sano said of sliders and curves. “But I try to compete with the pitcher. They throw me bad breaking ball, I let it go. They groove [a pitch], that’s what I hit.” Hitting is important, since it’s probably all Sano will be asked to do for a while. Molitor made it clear Sano probably won’t play third base or any other position, though the Twins want him to keep working on his defense. He might get into a game or two at third base between now and the All-Star break, but “I expect him to be a DH.” Molitor also assured Trevor Plouffe that he remains a fixture at third. None of that matters to Sano, not now. At 22 years old, he has finally achieved a dream he has had since childhood, and he’s thrilled to be here. After a morning flight from Birmingham, Ala., he arrived in Kansas City around 1:30 p.m. with his wife, met up with his sister and a couple of friends, and went to the ballpark to prepare for his first game. He watched video of Royals starter Chris Young with Torii Hunter in the clubhouse before the game, getting pointers on the righthander’s offspeed stuff, then took batting practice. Sano said he had to pretend to be surprised when Chattanooga manager Doug Mientkiewicz announced to the Lookouts that he had been promoted. Sano actually got the news when it spread around Twitter, so when Mientkiewicz made his “Welcome to the Show” speech in the clubhouse, he was mostly relieved that the decision was official. “It was a good moment,” Sano said.