It was the return of Ron Gardenhire — but not really.

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He came back to Target Field with the Arizona Diamondbacks last year, though it was remarkably refreshing to see Mr. Gardenhire — and also his doppelganger in pitching coach Chris Bosio, more on that later — back in the manager’s post in the dugout, even if it was on the third-base side.

For a while, it looked liked Nicholas Castellanos might be the hero, as he accounted for both of Detroit’s runs early against Twins starter Jose Berrios. Tigers lefty Blaine Hardy kept the Twins off balance for five innings, while his right-handed colleague Louis Coleman tacked on a pair more before the offense went to work.

Ultimately, though, the Twins pushed across four runs — two apiece in the fifth and eighth innings — to grab their 20th win of the season and get back to within reach of .500 yet again with a 4-2 victory over the Tigers on Monday evening.

Here’s what we saw from our vantage point:

Eddie Rosario played like his hair was on fire

It’s not often that a guy with one hit can affect the game as much as Rosario did, but it was all about when his hit happened, as well the events around it which had a direct correlation to the final score.

Let’s talk about Rosario’s eighth inning for a second. The frame started tied 2-2, with Daniel Stumpf blowing away Max Kepler with mid-90s heat up in the zone. Eduardo Escobar followed with an epic eight-pitch battle — including falling behind 1-2 after chasing a pitch in the dirt — that resulted in a walk.

Rosario came up and swung through back-to-back sliders to fall into an 0-2 count. After taking a 94 mph fastball up, Rosario hit one that was even higher into right-center for a hustle double.

No seriously, here’s where the pitch was located:

That green ball at the top? That was the double.

After that, Mitch Garver was intentionally walked to set up a lefty-lefty matchup with Stumpf and Logan Morrison. As was sometimes the case before the new intentional walk rule, the intentional pass was followed by an unintentional one, as LoMo walked on four straight pitches — dutifully laying off two sliders before Stumpf missed with consecutive heaters — to force home the go-ahead run.

The fourth run was the interesting one, however.

On the sixth pitch from Warwick Saupold — who relieved Stumpf after the LoMo walk — Twins designated hitter Robbie Grossman lifted a fly ball to shallow center.

Tigers center fielder Leonys Martin made the catch, and Rosario scooted slowly down the line until Martin was flat-footed — thanks to his post-grab footwork — before darting home. Martin’s awkward recovery/footwork let to a throw home that airmailed catcher James McCann, allowing Rosario to score a pivotal second insurance run.

It was quite similar to a delayed steal, for a parallel play.

In the ninth, with closer Fernando Rodney looking to close things down, Rosario made a couple nice plays on the final two outs.

This was the final out:

Rosario chased down a drive off the bat of John Hicks, grabbing it just before the wall — and the collision — to cap the team’s 20th win of the season. Rosario came up limping a bit after the play, but seemed no worse for the wear in the clubhouse after the game.

Sure, Castellanos was a pest, but Berrios was terrific

Berrios opened the game with a three-pitch strikeout of Martin — all fastballs — and may have gotten a bit greedy with Castellanos, who pounded the first pitch fastball out to the berm in center for a quick 1-0 Tigers lead.

Berrios retired the next five Tigers in a row before Jose Iglesias opened the third with a double down the left-field line. Dixon Machado followed that with a four-pitch walk, and that brought Martin back to the plate. Berrios managed to get him to ground into a 6-4-3 double play, but with two outs, Castellanos again ambushed a first-pitch fastball into center for an RBI single and a 2-0 lead.

That, however, was the extent of the damage against Berrios, who retired the next 15 batters in a row before another walk to Machado in the seventh, and finished his night by getting 16 of the last 16 batters out.

Berrios showed good velocity on the evening — as high as 96 mph on both his two- and four-seam fastballs — and in all had 17 swinging strikes. Seven came on the curveball (20.6 percent), six on the two-seamer (14.6 percent) and four on the four-seamer (16 percent). There were zero swinging strikes on his changeup, but just five of the 11 were swung at.

For what it’s worth, ESPN had Berrios with 19 swinging strikes — an even more dominating performance.

Maybe you have noticed, maybe you haven’t, but Fernando Rodney has been great

The ERA is down to 2.70, the WHIP is down in the 1.30 range and the velocity was good in this one, as he reached back for a fastball as high as 96.7 mph.

New York — where he last allowed an earned run — feels like a very long time ago, and it’s for good reason. He’s gone the last 10 appearances without giving up an earned run.

In a word, filthy.

The Twins offense was stymied by a pair of soft tossers

Hardy averaged 88.6 mph on his four-seamer and scarcely touched 90 mph.

Coleman came in and brought some funk from the right side, averaging 90.7 mph on his four-seamer.

…and combined, they held the Twins to just two earned runs over seven innings with five strikeouts and a walk.

It’s certainly possible it says more about the state of the Twins offense at present, as they’ve struggled to score runs with Miguel Sano on the shelf, but let’s not take anything away from Hardy, either. He got plenty of weak fly-ball contact all night from Twins hitters looking to elevate, and didn’t give up any free passes, either.

Max Kepler thought he hit a homer — until he didn’t…

Kepler though he’d taken Hardy deep in the fifth inning, only to have the ball hit the fence and land on the warning track.

Kepler cruised into second with a double, but that didn’t stop him from taking some razzing both in the dugout and after the game.

A group of guys coming out of the shower area after the game caught the Kepler highlight — complete with him watching the ball sail off his bat — and busted up laughing. The ringleader, as one might not be surprised to hear, was Escobar, who said:

A replay of Max Kepler's booming double was on replay as some guys came out of the shower area at Target Field. There was a closeup of him watching it, and a bunch of guys cracked up. "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!" Eduardo Escobar said with a huge laugh. — Brandon Warne (@Brandon_Warne) May 22, 2018

Though in Escobar’s trademark voice, it came out more like “ICAMBELIEVIT!” It was pretty funny, all things considered, and yet another extra-base hit for Kepler against lefties.

…and it could have really hurt…

Escobar followed the double with a single to left, and Tigers outfielder JaCoby Jones came up with a massive throw to the plate, with McCann’s tag just missing Kepler as the Twins took a 3-2 lead.

Well, not so fast. Gardenhire challenged the call, and it appeared Kepler’s slide kept his front foot from ever touching the plate, allowing McCann to sneak a tag onto his back just in the nick of time.

Tie game, yet again. If Kepler had just ran out of the box, maybe he makes it to third and scores on the single easily?

Maybe that’s a bit of wishcasting, but it’s at least something to think about.

…but didn’t, thanks at least in part to Ehire Adrianza

After Machado walked in the eighth inning — his second four-pitch walk of the night, despite coming in with a .262 OBP — Martin hit a looping pop fly to shallow center. Adrianza made a terrific running catch, ending the inning and Berrios’ night with the game tied, 2-2.

With Machado off with the pitch and the ball in the air for a long time, it’s not impossible to think that he could have tried to score if the ball had not been caught.

This is a huge reason why Adrianza, despite hitting just .205/.272/.253 on the season, is playing regularly over Gregorio Petit.

Fans mistook Bosio for Gardenhire on a mound visit in the eighth inning

It was just kind of laughable, but Bosio went out for a mound visit with Stumpf struggling, and Twins fans cheered loudly for him, mistakenly thinking it was Gardenhire.

Here are their spring training photos. It’s an easy mistake to make for Twins fans, who remember Gardy looking an awful lot like Bosio does now:

It’s an easy mistake to make, right? Here’s Gardenhire taking Stumpf out for Saupold, by the way:

The Phil Hughes era came to an end on Monday

Even though it makes men rich beyond their wildest dreams, baseball is a cruel mistress. It gives you hope in the spring when everything feels so alive and new, and leaves you when you need it the most, when everything gets cold, dreary and miserable.

It’s not that different for the players, and that time came for Hughes and the Twins, as the 31-year-old righty was designated for assignment on Monday night. In short, it ends his Twins tenure, as he’ll certainly be released once he clears waivers with $22 million and change still on his ledger on a deal signed through 2019.

From all of us at Zone Coverage, I feel fairly confident I speak for everyone when I say happy trails to Mr. Hughes. He’s a consummate professional and will do well wherever he heads next, whether it’s in baseball or anything else.

Baseball can be a harsh and humbling game. Respect to the Twins organization and fans for always treating me so incredibly well. Will miss you guys ❤️ — Phil Hughes (@PJHughes45) May 22, 2018

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