From the outset of the game, when the Twins scored two runs off Sheffield in a hurry, it was obvious that the game-within-a-game the Mariners would be playing was keeping the Twins from doing too much damage against Justus Sheffield while Bailey Ober was on the mound, giving the team a chance to get back against the soft underbelly of Minnesota’s worst-in-baseball bullpen.
A fifth inning featuring back-to-back home runs by Nelson Cruz and Ryan Jeffers, as well as the second walk of the game dealt by Sheffield to the previously unwalkable Willians Astrudillo, who now has two of his career nine walks against Sheffield, ended any intrigue in both the game-within-a-game and the larger game itself.