The Twins rallied for a captivating 9-8 extra-inning win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday on a walk-off hit-by-pitch.
Initially, it looked like the White Sox were on their way to a win following a home run from Tim Anderson in the 11th inning. However, the Twins tied it in the bottom half when Mitch Garver hit a sacrifice fly, scoring LaMonte Wade Jr. and the game continued on.
But the White Sox bounced back with a two-run home run from Ryan Cordell in the top of the 12th to take a 8-6 lead, but again the Twins refused to stay down.
Nelson Cruz led off with a single in the bottom half and after an Eddie Rosario double, Marwin Gonzalez roped a two-run single to tie the game. Two batters later with the bases loaded, Ronald Torreyes was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, giving Minnesota the improbable win.
WEAR IT FOR THE WIN! đź’Ą#MNTwins pic.twitter.com/8DVi4MTbNy
— FanDuel Sports Network North (@FanDuelSN_NOR) September 18, 2019
The offense initially busted the game open in bottom of the third when Ryan LaMarre hit his first home run of the season to put the Twins up 1-0.
After Garver and Cruz drew walks, Rosario slapped a ball to left field for an RBI scoring Garver, but it was Miguel Sano’s 30th home run of the season, traveling 482 feet, that was the highlight of the inning.
https://twitter.com/Twins/status/1174119088819527680
With Sano up to 30 home runs on the season, the Twins now have five players with 30 or more home runs, which is an MLB record surpassing the Philadelphia Phillies who had four players with 30 or more in 2009.
After cruising through the first three frames, Martin Perez ran into some trouble in the middle innings, allowing three runs. Eventually, manager Rocco Baldelli turned to his bullpen with two outs in the fifth inning.
It wasn’t exactly an encouraging start by Perez, who went 4.2 innings, allowing 10 hits and three earned runs. Perez is likely in a battle with Kyle Gibson for the right to be one of Minnesota’s three starting pitchers in a best-of-five player series.
Trevor May relieved Perez and gave up back-to-back bombs to Zack Collins and Adam Engel, tying the game at 5-5. May has allowed just eight hits in 21.1 innings since the beginning of August, and half of them have been home runs.
Tuesday’s win gives the Twins 93 victories on the season and their magic number is now at seven games to clinch a postseason berth. They’ll go for the series sweep of the White Sox on Wednesday, with first pitch at 6:40 p.m.
