The Twins quickly put their disappointing 10-7 loss to the Yankees behind them on Friday with a 9-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Twins and Rays took a 1-1 tie into the fifth inning when the Twins exploded for six runs, including Byron Buxton’s second homer of the game. He now has 17 on the year and is hitting a scorching .393 with six home runs over the past week.
Carlos Correa also had three hits, including a home run, and Luis Arraez, who leads the American League with a .360 batting average, had two more hits. Correa, Buck and Arraez accounted for seven of the Twins’ 13 hits.
The pitching win went to lefty Devin Smeltzer, who, despite allowing three home runs, still made a quality start. He allowed three runs over six innings with three walks and three strikeouts. Reliever Griffin Jax struck out the side in the seventh.
The Twins have not announced a pitcher for Saturday’s game.
Extra innings…
-The Twins are 34-26 and maintain a three-game lead over the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central.
-Smeltzer is now 3-0 with a 2.38 ERA.
-Ex-Twin Jose Berrios made another nice start on Friday against the Detroit Tigers. Berrios allowed only one run over eight innings to beat Motown 10-1. Berrios is now 5-2 with an elevated ERA of 4.73, although he continues to chip away at it.
-On June 11, 1967, Twins pitcher Dean Chance one-hit the Kansas City Athletics for an 8-0 Twins win, according to Baseball-Reference.com But no, he actually did that on May 11, 1967.
Chance allowed one hit over nine innings with six walks and eight strikeouts.
“You know I didn’t have no-hit stuff tonight,” said Chance after the game to the Minneapolis Tribune. “I was fighting control. I think the difference is that I don’t know how to pitch with all the runs the Twins have been getting me. I don’t feel any pressure. I’m not complaining, but I think it’s more challenging in these one-run games, like I used to have pitching for the Angels.”
Sources: MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com.