The Twins had no business winning Tuesday night.
The Chicago White Sox, perhaps trying to make good on the last gasp of summer, scored eight runs on 20 hits, including a Twins-like four home runs. But the Twins scratched together a rally in the bottom of the 12th and won the game 9-8 in walk-off fashion after Ronald Torreyes was hit by a pitch to force in a run.
Despite holding his arm as he made his way to first base, the Twins still found reason to celebrate and doused Torreyes with water and other things as they would in any walk-off situation. The win cut the Twins’ magic number to seven. Cleveland also won on Tuesday so the Twins’ maintain their five-game lead in the division.
The Twins never give up, manager Rocco Baldelli told MLB.com.
“There is no quit in this group,” he said. “What a group. There’s not a lot of words for that. You had to experience that game and feel it, and go through it and feel the ups and downs. It would have been easy to just end the game, go up and take three big swings or whatever, a few outs and it would have been over because it was a long and not an easy game.”
Starter Martin Perez and reliever Trevor May didn’t pitch particularly well, but Tyler Duffey and Sergio Romo both struck out the side in their respective innings, then the Twins’ rally got underway as Zack Littell and Ryne Harper underwhelmed. Harper, though, was ultimately credited with the win.
The Twins scored nine runs on 15 hits. Eddie Rosario, Marwin Gonzalez (who is finally back after an extended period on the injured list) and the amazing, Luis Arraez, had nine of those hits. Miguel Sano homered giving him 30 on the season.
Jake Odorizzi gets the ball on Wednesday.
Extra innings…
-The record-setting Twins set another record Tuesday night, becoming the first team in major league history to have five players with 30 or more home runs. The players: Max Kepler, Sano, Rosario, Nelson Cruz and Mitch Garver.
-It’s a good thing the Twins keep winning because I’m not sure the terrible Detroit Tigers will ever beat the Indians again. The Tribe defeated the Tigers Tuesday night and are now 16-1 against Motown this season. Wow.