The Minnesota Twins have their longest winning streak of the season after beating the Tampa Bay Rays 5-3 for their sixth straight win.
Joe Mauer’s bases-loaded bloop single scored Shane Robinson to give the Twins the lead in the seventh inning. Trevor Plouffe followed with a sacrifice fly to increase their lead to 4-2.
Eduardo Escobar led the Twins’ attack with a pair of home runs – the first multi-home run game of his career. Escobar finished 2-for-4 with his seventh and eighth home runs of the season.
Tyler Duffey started on the mound for the Twins. He didn’t factor in the decision, giving up two runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. Brian Duensing (4-0) pitched 2/3 of an inning to pick up the victory.
Blaine Boyer, who earlier in the day was activated from the disabled list, returned to throw two scoreless innings of relief. Kevin Jepsen worked a perfect ninth for his eighth save of the season.
The game was scoreless until the fourth inning as the Twins made some nice defensive plays to help Duffey out of a few early jams, including this beautiful outfield assist from Eddie Rosario.
GIF: Eddie Rosario throws out Kevin Kiermaier at 3rd from deep right field #StopRunningOnEddieRosario pic.twitter.com/LKyVe1EYb7
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) August 26, 2015
The Twins were forced to battle back after the Rays got on the scoreboard first. Daniel Nava led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo home run – his first of the season.
First homer off Duffey since his debut in Toronto. Had worked 16 2/3 innings without allowing one.
— Mike BerardinoNDI (@MikeBerardino) August 27, 2015
The Twins tied it up at 1-1 in the top of the fifth. Brian Dozier reached on a fielder’s choice to score Robinson.
But it didn’t stay that way for long as Kevin Kiermaier led off the bottom of the fifth with a triple. He scored on a single to left from Grady Sizemore.
The Twins pulled even in the bottom of the fifth when Escobar hit a solo home run to even the game at 2-2.
The Rays had a chance to reclaim the lead in the sixth, when they loaded the bases with no one out. However, they failed to do anything about it.
Pinch hitter Brandon Guyer flies out to left to end the sixth. Rays 2-for-11 w/RISP
— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) August 27, 2015
The Twins then pulled away with the runs late to secure the win.
Tommy Milone (6-3) takes the mound for the Twins Thursday evening as they go for the sweep against Rays lefty Drew Smyly (1-2).
