The Twins and Rays finished in wild fashion Friday night in Tampa Bay, with a pair of a late-inning homers, a game-tying hit and a bizarre replay review to end the game.
Trailing 6-2 with two outs in the eighth inning, Eddie Rosario took an 0-2 slider and drilled it over the fence in right for a game-tying grand slam.
Minnesota then took a 7-6 in the ninth on a home run by Max Kepler, his second go-ahead, ninth-inning home run already in this young season.
But in the bottom of the ninth, Twins closer Fernando Rodney recorded two outs and then hit Carlos Gomez in the back to put the Rays on base.
Gomez stole second and scored on a single up the middle by Brad Miller, but as you’ll see in the video below, the single was anything but ordinary as it skipped over Eduardo Escobar’s glove after it took a giant hop off the pitcher’s mound.
It got weird in the 10th when ex-Twin Denard Span’s hard grounder to the right side was gloved by a diving Joe Mauer, who flipped to Zach Duke at first base, with the umpire ruling that Duke’s right foot never touched the bag.
Duke then spun and fired home but too late to catch a sliding Johnny Fields, who scored the winning run.
Duke easily beat Span to first base, but a 2-minute and 16-second replay review proved inconclusive and the ruling on the field was upheld.
“I felt like I got a piece of the base, but I guess they didn’t see it on the replay,” Duke said, via ESPN. “Obviously I should do a better job touching the base, I guess.”
