Patience pays: 3 walks and Twins walk off
Do-Hyoung Park
@dohyoungparkMINNEAPOLIS -- When the skies opened up above Target Field following the seventh inning of Saturday¡¯s game, the FOX national broadcast switched over to the matchup between the Cardinals and Braves -- and so did the Twins¡¯ attention, apparently.
¡°I think we got inspired by the Cardinals' walk-off,¡± Carlos Correa said. ¡°We were watching the game in here and said, ¡®Let¡¯s do the same thing.¡¯ We went out there and did it the exact same way: walk-off walk.¡±
Trailing by two into the ninth after that 51-minute rain delay, Correa and Jake Cave came through with back-to-back knocks to tie the game. And after they executed some crisp defense and a rare sacrifice bunt in the 10th, Gilberto Celestino did, indeed, walk it off with a bases-loaded walk that sent the Twins to an improbable 3-2 triumph that, considering the circumstances, might have been their most meaningful win of the season.
¡°What we call small things sometimes are not so small,¡± manager Rocco Baldelli said. ¡°They won the game for us today.¡±
If the Twins are going to make a push for October, these are the games they have to win. They have to be able to seize and carry forward the momentum from a previous victory. They have to execute in crunch time, their biggest stars leading the way.
But for 8 1/2 innings, it felt that Saturday night was destined to be the next downswing in the cycle of hope and disappointment this month for the Twins, a team chronically unable to build on its successes as it chased a lost lead in the division. They¡¯d swept the Royals last homestand -- only to follow that with a six-game losing streak. Blanked 2-0 late on Saturday, their nine-run outburst in a dominant Friday win over these Giants seemed forgotten.
But they swung the narrative -- and they did so emphatically.
After having stranded nine baserunners through the first eight innings -- including runners on the corners with none out in the eighth -- the Twins got a leadoff walk from Max Kepler in the ninth, and, two batters later, a two-out free pass to Luis Arraez from Giants right-hander Camilo Doval.
Correa roped a sinker to right to cap his first four-hit performance as a Twin, and even after third-base coach Tommy Watkins gave Kepler a stop sign at third base, Giants right fielder Mike Yastrzemski¡¯s misdirected throw allowed Kepler to score the tying run and Arraez to move to third. Cave followed with another opposite-field knock to knot the score, 2-2, helping improve the Twins to 5-50 in games in which they trailed after eight innings this season.
The ball found Correa in the top of the 10th, too, as he made a key throw to third base on the inning-opening grounder to nail the lead runner, and another nice turn to second on the subsequent ground ball to help rookie Jhoan Duran. Nick Gordon also executed a perfect sacrifice bunt to open the bottom of the 10th, setting up the trio of walks to Gio Urshela, Kepler and Celestino to complete the comeback.
¡°Yesterday, we come out swinging the bats great, pitch great, play good defense,¡± Baldelli said. ¡°It was really an all-around game. Today¡¯s game did not come so easy. It was a challenging affair in a lot of ways -- offensively, pitching-wise at times, and defensively. Honestly, we didn¡¯t play perfect baseball, but we did enough, and we certainly didn¡¯t quit.¡±
It¡¯s significant that those big opportunities found Correa, Gordon and Celestino.
Correa has long been in search of a signature moment for the Twins, his team needing him to step up more than ever down the stretch. He entered the game with a .616 OPS with runners in scoring position this season and an eye-opening .388 OPS with two outs and runners in scoring position -- and he came through big in the ninth and 10th, on both sides of the ball.
Cave had been mired in an 0-for-21 slump before his big hits in the eighth and ninth. Gordon struck out with the tying run at third in the eighth. Celestino had made a mental error in the ninth, allowing two important trail runners to move up 90 feet.
They all got their redemption for one night -- and the Twins really needed it.
¡°To not just cash it in there at the end, which very easily could have happened, we didn't do it,¡± Gray said. ¡°Maybe this is one that will show its face later in the season.¡±