The Twins made it three wins in a row Friday night after they rallied from a 4-0 deficit to a 6-5 walk-off win in 10 innings over the Oakland A’s.
The Twins earned a series win over the Rockies earlier in the week, including the 17-9 rout on Wednesday, and now they have won the first two games of a four-game series against the A’s. The Twins appear to have a good chance to sweep this team.
But it began badly Friday after Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson served up a first-inning grand slam. However, the Twins rallied with an RBI triple, a three-run home run, a bases-loaded walk and finally a game-winning hit from Max Kepler. Kepler also stroked the dinger, giving him the team record of 81 home runs hit at Target Field, according to MLB.com.
The ballpark opened in 2010.
The team’s offense has been on fire of late. They smacked 10 hits on Friday, 13 hits on Thursday and unloaded on the Rockies Wednesday with 24 hits, which is tied for fourth all time in franchise history, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
Bailey Ober gets the ball Saturday.
Extra innings…
-Who else is on fire? Carlos Correa who recently cranked out 14 hits over a five-day span, the most by a Twin since Joe Mauer accomplished the same over the same number of days in 2016, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
-The team record for most hits in a game is 28, the Twins rocking the Seattle Mariners 20-7 on June 13, 2017.
-The Twins are 38-32 and still in third place in the AL Central, but they have closed within 1.5 games of the second-place Royals. They remain 7.5 games back of the Cleveland Guardians.
-The Twins also sprayed 24 hits in a 13-5 win over the Boston Red Sox in Game 1 of a double-header at Fenway Park on May 25, 1977.
Larry Hisle drove in five runs and Rod Carew, who was hitting .384, cracked five hits in six trips to the plate with a run scored and two RBI. The Twins had 10 extra-base hits, including two triples in the win. In Game 2, they banged out another 11 hits in a 9-4 win.
Here’s how the local papers covered the games.
The Minneapolis Tribune
“Before Wednesday night’s double-header a Boston writer attempted to needle Twins Manager Gene Mauch about the stiff wind blowing out of Fenway Park. The writer implied that Mauch should have some trepidation about playing the Red Sox in those conditions. The Red Sox led the American League with 50 homers going into the night.
“That’s the way we like it,” Mauch said, not changing his facial expression one iota. “This team can hit.”
“And how.
“The Twins rattled Fenway for 35 hits, including an American League high for the year of 24 in the first game, as they swept the Red Sox, 13-5 and 9-4.”
The Boston Globe (with a Bob Ryan byline)
“What do you do? Laugh? Cry? Call your chief scout in Taiwan and ask him if any 12-year-olders look ready?
“The stats speak for themselves, two losses by brutal scores of 13-5 and 9-4 to the Minnesota Twins only being a partial indication of the home team’s pitching ineptness. The Twins pounded out a league season high of — brace yourself — 24 hits in the opener, including 10 for extra bases. They came right back with 11 more in the nightcap, and probably would have had more had they not exhausted themselves hitting line drives all over the ball park.”
Sources: Newspapers.com