Twins 3, Guardians 1: Taj tosses a gem

Austin PoseyWed, Jul 8, 2026·2 min read

Cleveland got on the board in 2nd inning, as Rhys Hoskins went down and got Taj Bradley’s fastball and hit it out of the park to center for a solo homer. That was one of only three hits allowed by Bradley all night, as well as the only Guardians run. The question became: Can the Twins score more than one run tonight? The answer was yes.

In the bottom of the 2nd, Kody Clemens, Ryan Kreidler, and Luke Keaschall all reached without hitting a ball out of the infield. Then, after Kyler Fedko struck out (still searching for that first big league hit), Austin Martin got the Twins on the board with a sac-fly. With 2 outs, Brooks Lee put the Twins on top with a single up the middle, scoring Kreidler.

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Taj Bradley had great stuff tonight, getting 10 strikeouts. Cleveland batters couldn’t hit his cutter, which had a 71% whiff rate and got him 7 of those strikeouts. In the 7th, with the tying run at 3rd and 1 out, he used that cutter to get Rhys Hoskins to strikeout, then a splitter got Brayan Rocchio to ground out to end the threat.

In the bottom of the 7th, with Josh Bell at first and 2 outs, Kody Clemens drilled a ball into the left-center field gap for an RBI triple to get the Twins an insurance run.

Andrew Morris tossed a clean 8th inning, and Taylor Rogers got the first two in the 9th until he walked Chase DeLauter. Yoendrys Gomez came in and got Gabriel Arias to swing through 3 straight pitches for the save.

Taj Bradley: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K, HR

Kody Clemens: 2-4, R, 3B, RBI

Josh Bell: 2-3, R, BB

NO DUDS TWINS WIN!!