Santana, Jeffers HRs lead Twins to kick off Players' Weekend

ARLINGTON -- Twins outfielder Manuel Margot worked the longest plate appearance in the Majors this season to start the game. Then catcher Ryan Jeffers belted a solo home run with a bat resembling a No. 2 pencil in the third inning to kick off Players’ Weekend. But first baseman Carlos Santana emerged as the star of the night.

Santana’s three-run home run in the fifth broke a tie and lifted the Twins to a 4-3 victory over the Rangers on Friday night at Globe Life Field.

Santana also made a key defensive play in the bottom half of the fifth inning, snagging Leody Taveras’ liner for the second out. That proved to save a run as the Rangers’ next batter, Marcus Semien, went deep.

“It feels like every game he does something like that at first base and you throw your hands in the air and clap for him from the bench and you say, ‘Wow,’” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s all over the place like a jumping bean over there. He’s diving, he’s flying, he’s got great feel, too. It’s not like he’s just sliding around, diving, just making great plays. He does all of the really important small things at first base, too, that you need guys to do. He knows exactly where to be. He does it right.”

In the top half of the inning, Santana came through by sending a 3-2 changeup from Rangers starter Andrew Heaney into the Twins’ bullpen in left-center field. It scored Jeffers, who reached on a hit by pitch, and Margot, who singled, as the Twins took a 4-1 lead.

The Rangers pulled to within a run on Semien’s homer in the fifth and another single run in the sixth. But the Twins found a way to get it done the rest of the night.

“Kind of an edge-of-your-seat contest and I just like the way that our guys are responding,” Baldelli said. “Sometimes the other team can play well too. They hit a lot of balls on the barrel, they had good at-bats, but we maneuvered and kind of wiggled around and found ways and then got big swings when we needed it. That’s a nice recipe. I don’t mind that.”

Jeffers delivered the first big swing with a solo homer to start the third, erasing an early 1-0 deficit with his pencil bat. Friday’s theme for the start of Players’ Weekend was “Fun,” as players were able to show off their personalities, friendships and off-field interests.

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Jeffers had a couple of options with the pencil bat and a purple crayon, but opted to go with the former to start since he felt it was the “coolest one.”

“I said I was going to keep rotating until I got a hit,” Jeffers said. “I got a hit, so I stuck with it. Then I got hit and I stuck with it and then I got out, so I switched and I used a purple crayon to finish.”

The Twins are now 19-14 in one-run games and are 16 games over .500 for the first time since Sept. 28, 2019 (101-60).

“We battled through it and found ways to do good things,” Baldelli said. “We had a couple of really big swings, Jeffers and Santana coming through really big for us, our bullpen figuring things out and pitching well, coming in and holding them down. There were some really good things.”