The Twins responded with a power show of their own Saturday night, getting four home runs and an 8-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies after the Fighting Phils clobbered Minnesota 13-2 on Friday.
Saturday’s win also snapped a four-game losing streak that began with a series loss to the Detroit Tigers.
The Twins got home runs from Matt Wallner, Carlos Correa and Joey Gallo, who on Game 119 of the season finally delivered in a way that fans probably wish he had done months ago.
Gallo had four hits in four trips to the plate with two home runs (the second blast was an absolute moonshot), two runs scored and he drove in four more. His two dinger day means Gallo has the team lead in home runs at 20.
Sonny Gray gets the ball Sunday.
Extra innings …
-Despite the four-game losing streak, the Twins still have a 4.5 game lead over the Cleveland Guardians because the Guards are going nowhere fast. In fact, if the Guardians aren’t careful (and maybe the Twins, too) the Tigers, 6-4 in their last 10 games, just might sneak into second place in the division.
-The Dallas Keuchel experiment appears to be on life support. He was terrible on Friday, coughing up six runs, all earned, in less than two innings of work. At least he can say the bullpen wasn’t any better.
-During Friday’s rout, manager Rocco Baldelli, in an effort to preserve the bullpen, finally called on position player Jordan Luplow to pitch the ninth, and Luplow stole the show by giving his best impression of Phils’ closer Craig Kimbrel.
-Saturday’s pitching victory went to Pablo Lopez, who had no trouble with the Phillies, tossing six innings of scoreless baseball with a walk and seven strikeouts. He is now 8-6 with a 3.66 ERA.
-Me and my son are back in the Twin Cities to hang out and see some Twins baseball. I snapped a couple of photos of US Bank Stadium as we made our way into town. Here’s the second photo:
It’s good to be back.