Six hours and 26 minutes of baseball on a Sunday afternoon. That was the record-setting day at Target Field Sunday as the Rays outlasted the Twins 8-6 in a 15-inning game.
According to the Twins, it was the longest game in terms of time in Target Field history.
Tampa Bay got back-to-back home runs from Evan Longoria and Logan Morrison against left-hander Hector Santiago in the 15th inning. Santiago also started and lost Friday’s series opener against the Rays.
“It’s a tough loss,” said Twins manager Paul Molitor. “There’s no question about that, and we always try to measure the ability of our club to be resilient, and we’ll find out here in the short term how we do with this one.”
According to Fox Sports North, the game featured a whopping 553 pitches, 17 pitchers used and 35 runners left on base.
Minnesota led 5-3 in the ninth but the Rays tied the game with a pair of runs off Twins closer Brandon Kintzler. It was his second blown save of the season.
The Rays took a 6-5 lead in the 13th and the Twins tied it up in the bottom of the 13th on an RBI single from Robbie Grossman.
The Twins left the bases loaded twice in the game, including in the 11th inning when Miguel Sano struck out as a pinch hitter. Sano singled in the 14th inning to end his streak of nine straight at-bats with a strikeout.
Joe Mauer reached base his first seven plate appearances. He homered, doubled, singled twice and walked three times before striking out in his final at-bat.
That makes 133 career homers for Mauer, passing Jacque Jones and moving into 11th place on the #MNTwins all-time list.
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) May 28, 2017
Up next, the Twins host the AL-leading Houston Astros Monday-Wednesday.
