Somehow, piranhaball returned.
The Twins clutched their way to a 6-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, after finding themselves in a 5-1 hole as later as the home sixth. This one took contributions from everybody, including a pair of unexpected strategic deployments that helped ice the game in favor of Minnesota.
Since Rocco broke this one down bullpen-style, I’ll go arm-by-arm to take you through this one.
Cole Sands
Despite a brief delay that pushed back the start time, the Twins were able to execute their intended gameplan for Saturday’s contest. Cole Sands got the ball to kick things off, with the intention of tossing an inning to help set up the rest of the squad. He met the assignment swimmingly, retiring all three of his batters and earning two Ks to make sure things were squared away.
Danny Coulombe
The second inning was Danny’s, serving today as something of a second opener to help ensure that Travis Adams — making his major-league debut — would be able to start his afternoon facing the bottom of the order. Coulombe would start his own outing with a strikeout, then grab two more quick red dots to move things along.
The Twins would get their first run of the day in the home second. Singles from Carlos Correa and Ryan Jeffers precipitated a walk to Matt Wallner, bringing up Royce Lewis in one of his signature bases-loaded plate appearances. Rays starter Taj Bradley surely had a chance at some out, somewhere — but a small hesitation is all it takes in this game, and after he made one, Lewis had an RBI single.
Travis Adams
That was all the Twins would get in the third, so it was onto Travis Adams to get the bulk innings covered today. Adams got Taylor Walls to ground out in his first-ever big-league plate appearance, but it was a grind from there. In the third inning, Danny Jansen doubled home Chandler Simpson to tie the game. Two more doubles in the fourth — these from Jonathan Aranda and Josh Lowe — would eventually pull Tampa Bay ahead, 2-1.
Then, two more in the fifth; Simpson bunted his way aboard, moved to third on a Jansen single, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Yandy Diaz. It would be the first of two RBI sac flies in the inning; after Brandon Lowe moved the runners up with a single, Jansen scored on another flyout, this time from Junior Caminero. These wound up key outs, RBIs aside, as Adams did his best to limit the damage while failing to strike out a Tampa Bay hitter until the sixth.
It was in the aforementioned sixth (literally, I just mentioned it) that yet another sacrifice fly — this time rom Simpson, scoring Magnum — made it a 5-1 Rays lead but simultaneously ended the inning and the outing for Adams.
So, work to do for Minnesota, now watching as the Rays had pecked their way to a four-run lead in the middle innings. Still riding the high of yesterday’s victory, the Twins decided that they weren’t going to roll over and watch this one slip away — instead opting to get all four runs back in the home sixth.
It started with singles from Carlos Correa and Ryan Jeffers, though these were bookended by a pair of outs; as such, still down 5-1, Minnesota brought Royce Lewis to the plate with two already gone in the inning, and the Tampa Bay lead still at four. But Royce would crack a single to center, plating Correa and bringing the tying run up to the plate.
Because he’s apparently the most randomly clutch power hitter of all time, the tying run in question was Kody Clemens, and one swing later, this game was even.
Griffin Jax
Not quite in the driver’s seat, the gameplan had altered itself with things knotted up at 5. Where we might have seen a Joey Wentz-type outing for the rest of this one, a tie ballgame meant Griffin Jax got the assignment instead. He’d walk his first man, but induce a double play and a flyout to calmly end any threat the Rays were considering building.
Jhoan Duran
Facing the 3-4-5 hitters in the top of the eighth, Duran was tabbed for an early entrance to help keep that win probability metric on the up-and-up. The eighth was not without drama; two quick outs preceded a double and subsequent intentional walk of Josh Lowe, then was capped with a called K on Taylor Walls to shut the Rays down again.
Then came the aggression on the part of manager Rocco Baldelli, seeking his 500th victory as skipper of the Twins. Duran, not having been called upon for a second inning all year, was summoned back out for the top of the ninth with a looming All-Star Break and an all-important comeback win opportunity sitting in front of the team.
His ninth was equally stressful — probably more so, considering Jansen’s one-out single, steal of second, and advance to third on an airmail from Ryan Jeffers meant that the Rays had the go-ahead run standing on third with two outs left on the ledger. But Duran blew Diaz away with cheese above the zone after a great battle, and earned himself a pop fly off Caminero’s bat and into Harrison Bader’s glove to escape the danger.
Served up another opportunity to embarrass the Tampa Bay bullpen, the Twins got creative in their walk-off ninth. Byron Buxton drew a dangerous walk to begin the inning, and before a steal of second could even be contemplated, Willi Castro had already pushed him to third with a ground-ball single through the right side.
With men at the corners and nobody out, options were limitless for today’s hero Brooks Lee. With ever the flair for the dramatic, Lee pushed a squeeze bunt down the first-base line and ended the ballgame.
So, make it seven walk-off winners for a Twins team that climbs to 43-46, still three solid games under the .500 mark, but with opportunity to sweep a Rays squad tomorrow and work their way back to respectability ahead of an All-Star Break which hopes — hopes — to lead into a healthier second-half squad. There’s still a week to go before the team earns some much-deserved rest, but every win and every chance to pick up the vibe counts when you’re still 3.5 games out of the final playoff spot in early July.
Rocco’s boys are taking it one game at a time until then — and this one, in particular, was a fun day at the ballpark.
STUDS:
PH/DH Brooks Lee (1-for-2, RBI)
SS Carlos Correa (2-for-4, 2 R)
C Ryan Jeffers (3-for-4, R)
3B Royce Lewis (2-for-4, R, 2 RBI)
1B/2B Kody Clemens (1-for-4, R, 3 RBI, HR)
SP Cole Sands (IP, 2 K)
RP Jhoan Duran (2 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 3 K)
DUDS:
NO DUDS! TWINS WIN! TWINS WIN!