The Twins finally prevailed against the Boston Red Sox on Friday and moved a game ahead of the Detroit Tigers in the AL wild card race after Motown got pushed aside by the Baltimore Orioles.
It wasn’t easy and I’m sure Twins manager Rocco Baldelli has a few less hairs on the top of his head and a few more gray ones in his beard.
And like the last two, late-inning losses against the Cleveland Guardians, the Twins found themselves deadlocked at 1-1 in the top of the 12th inning. They burned through a starting pitcher and they burned through seven relievers, so how would they respond with the rain falling at Fenway?
Byron Buxton singled, Trevor Larnach hit an infield single, Carlos Correa walked, Matt Wallner singled to right and Willi Castro capped the inning with a sacrifice fly and the Twins went on to outlast the Red Sox, 4-2. Griffin Jax, the eighth reliever of the night, closed out the game for his 10th save.
Pablo Lopez gets the ball Saturday. Given the number of relievers who were used on Friday, Lopez likely will be asked to eat up a few innings.
Extra innings…
-The Royals also lost to the Giants on Friday, so the standings look like this: the Royals are 82-72, the Twins are 81-73 and the Tigers are 80-74.
-Starter David Festa allowed just a run over five innings, but he also needed 103 pitches, so it wasn’t his most efficient outing. He walked three batters.
-Once Festa stepped aside, Rocco ran deep on the bullpen, using the eight relievers who allowed an unearned run over the final seven frames and contributed to 20 total strikeouts. Cole Sands struck out the side in the seventh. The pitching victory went to Scott Blewett, his first.
-It clearly wasn’t an offensive showdown — the Twins and Red Sox were a combined 7-for-39 with runners in scoring position and left 32 men on base — but the Twins still connected for 13 hits, including 10 of them from Buxton, Larnach, Correa, Wallner and Royce Lewis.
-In other baseball news, ex-Twin and current Blue Jays pitcher Jose Berrios fell to 16-10 on the season, despite allowing just a run across six innings in a 1-0 defeat to the Rays.
Twenty-one of his 31 starts this season have been quality starts, meaning that on 21 occasions he pitched at least six innings and allowed three or fewer earned runs. Nice job, Jose.