The Twins win a one-run game.
Once again, the Twins had just a single run on the board through five innings, and it looked like another one of those games.
The Red Sox had already taken the lead on a third-inning RBI single from Rafael Devers; a Ty France groundout wound up scoring Carlos Correa in the next half-inning, the only run recorded after the Twins had second and third with just one out.
But in the sixth, the unthinkable — the Twins put their foot on the gas. With two outs already down in the inning, Kody Clemens provided the swing that both the telecast and the radio broadcast have been willing to happen all weekend — a two-run shot to right field with his father (yikes!) in attendance at Fenway Park.
It was an exhale moment for the Minnesota lineup. Trevor Story had robbed a run with a diving play in the second inning, and the Twins had already left the bases loaded in the fifth.
Too often, the team has taken these sorts of shots lying down in 2025; here on Saturday in Boston, it looked like they were willing and ready to respond, especially after three straight reached (still with two out) and Trevor Larnach brought home Harrison Bader on an RBI single that made it 4-1.
But then it started to look like another one of those games.
Whether it’s a tie game or a slim lead, Minnesota has seemed to have great difficulty keeping their stuff together in the later innings. Late leads surrendered, games broken open in the eighth inning, walk-off heartbreakers (two already this week!) — it hasn’t been pretty. And when Brock Stewart couldn’t handle his seventh inning — charged for two earned runs in 0.1 innings — it was suddenly just a 4-3 margin, with that Late Lead Bug looming again.
Again in the eighth, near disaster; in the top half, the contact play doomed the Twins again, as DaShawn Keirsey Jr. found himself thrown out at home on a one-out Harrison Bader grounder. And the BoSox roared right back, with back-to-back one-out singles in the home half erased mercifully by a 5-4-3 double play.
BUT THEN IN THE NINTH – yes, reader, it started to look like another one of those games. Clinging by a thread to the 4-3 lead, Jhoan Duran watched bloop himself aboard. as the tying run, advancing to second on a 6-3 from Jarren Duran. But a clutch strikeout of Rafael Devers and an IBB to avoid Alex Bregman set up the game-sealing popout to Kiersey, bringing this one to a close.
It was a heart-pounder for no other reason than the Twins have been pure ass to start the season and could ill afford another soul-crushing loss. The series will still be up for grabs tomorrow, the four-game losing streak is closed out, and a win like this can’t be BAD for morale. Bailey Ober turned in yet another delicious start, and the team (technically) improves to 14-20.
This one ends tomorrow, with Minnesota trying their damndest to inch back to the .500 mark. They wrap up in Boston tomorrow, then an off-day; we resume action on the other side of the weekend on Tuesday night at Target Field, with another six-game homestand against various orange-and-black opponents.
Thanks for joining us, and we’ll see you again tomorrow for another one of these games!
STUDS:
SP Bailey Ober (6 IP, 7 H, ER, BB, 6 K)
DH Ryan Jeffers (2-for-4, 2B)
2B Kody Clemens (1-for-4, R, 2 RBI, HR)
RF Harrison Bader (2-for-4, R)
DUDS:
NO DUDS! TWINS WIN! TWINS WIN!