The Twins on Monday edged the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4, the sixth straight time the two teams have won or lost by one run.
Things got off to a quick start: The Twins scored first, the Rays followed suit in the first inning, then Minnesota countered with a Trevor Larnach three-run homer that appeared to hit a fan smack in the face at Tropicana Field. More on that in a moment.
The Rays closed the score to 4-3, then Twins rookie Brooks Lee made it 5-3 on a solo shot. But the Rays came right back with a dinger of their own to make it 5-4 heading into the ninth inning. Reliever Cole Sands served up that home run, but closer Jhoan Duran followed him to silence the Rays and earn his 21st save.
The win went to reliever Jorge Alcala, who was in need of a decent appearance. He secured four outs, including three via the strikeout.
David Festa gets the ball Tuesday.
Extra innings…
-The Twins win combined with a Royals loss means the Twins are in sole possession of second place at 75-62 with a game lead on Kansas City. They remain 3.5 games back of the Cleveland Guardians.
-Nothing normal happens at Tropicana Field, said Twins radio play-by-play voice Kris Atteberry, and he was right based on the series of oddities that emerged during the game.
About the three-run home run: Larnach hit an absolute line-drive bullet to right field that appeared to knock a fan back into his seat. Atteberry and broadcast partner and ex-Twin Glen Perkins later made reference to someone with “broken glasses,” and there was chatter about it online.
-A pop fly also either hit the roof of the dome or struck an object hanging from it a la the Metrodome. And did that happen twice?
-After closer Duran took the mound, he was hit with a pitch-timer violation, which prompted a meeting between manager Rocco Baldelli and the home plate umpire. During the discussion, Baldelli put both hands behind his back, which sounds like his soon-to-be-ejected posture. He was not, however.
-More history: Now that The Oregonian archives are available via Newspapers.com, I’ve been searching for stories about the Triple-A Portland Beavers and their days as a Twins affiliate.
In 1987, the Beavers had a terrible season while the Twins, of course, won the World Series.
The Oregonian for May 14, 1987:
“The Portland Beavers continued their free fall through the baseball stratosphere Wednesday night with a 7-3 loss to the Tacoma Tigers in Civic Stadium. The Beavers are on a dizzying drop down to the depths of defeat. Wednesday’s loss was their 17th in 19 games.”
Future Twins manager Ron Gardenhire played on that Beavers team. He had an idea about what ailed them.
“We’ve got some young hitters, and we swing at a lot of first pitches,” he said. “We’ve got to be more patient at the plate and not go up and ground out on the first pitch. We get runners on first and second, and we get too impatient and ground into a double play. We’ve got to be more selective, but I think our biggest problem is we’re not patient.”
Sounds like a manager to me.