Twins reliever Griffin Jax looked like he was in a whole mess of trouble after allowing the tying run with men still on base in Monday’s game against the Chicago White Sox.
But Byron Buxton, who had homered earlier in the game to give the Twins a 2-1 lead, kicked off a major league first after he started the centerfielder-to-third baseman triple play to get Jax and the Twins out of the inning.
Buxton made a nice play on a long fly to center, then threw to third baseman Gio Urshela who tagged a White Sox runner between second and third, then ran to second base to get the force out to complete the history-making triple play.
From there, the Twins cruised and jumped all over White Sox reliever Joe Kelly who had a terrible 10th inning. He could only get two outs in the inning, but not before allowing four runs to give the Twins an eventual 6-3 win.
Chris Archer gets the ball on Tuesday.
Extra innings..
-The Twins are 46-37 and now lead the Guardians by 3.5 games because Cleveland dropped both games of a doubleheader to the Detroit Tigers.
-It’s a good thing the Twins won on Monday because Twins Territory was about to explode on Rocco Baldelli after he lifted starter Dylan Bundy at 58 pitches. Despite allowing an early home run, Bundy pitched well striking out six over five innings. Even Twins TV postgame broadcaster and Ex-Twin Tim Laudner called the move a “bit of a head-scratcher.”
-On July 5, 2002, the Twins reeled off an 8-run seventh inning to chase the Seattle Mariners 8-4. Half of those runs were the result of a Torii Hunter grand slam.
“That was a Mariner ballgame for six innings,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire told the Star Tribune. “Then we scored a touchdown and went for two.”
Sources: MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com