ARLINGTON — As soon as the mud lastly settled from a 10-inning, back-and-forth affair between the Twins and Rangers on Saturday evening, it was Minnesota that reigned supreme.
After discovering themselves in an early four-run deficit, the Twins’ offense caught fireplace to finish the comeback, beating the Rangers, 9-7, at Globe Life Area.
• Video games remaining: at TEX (1), at CLE (3), vs NYM (3), vs TB (3), at CWS (4), at CIN (3), vs LAA (3), vs OAK (3), at COL (3)
• Standings replace: With the Guardians additionally successful on Saturday, the Twins maintained a five-game lead for the American League Central title. Minnesota (71-65) is the third-seeded division winner, that means the membership would host a three-game Wild Card Collection vs. the ultimate AL Wild Card entrant.
Donovan Solano was the driving pressure behind the comeback effort, because the infielder tied a profession excessive with 4 hits — together with a solo residence run — and drove in three runs in opposition to Texas.
“He was unbelievable at present,” Twins supervisor Rocco Baldelli stated. “It’s loopy as a result of he was sick as a canine yesterday. I imply, he was extraordinarily sick. We even needed to ship him residence as a result of he wasn’t capable of play.
“Then he got here in at present and stated he’s feeling higher. He’s undoubtedly not one hundred pc, however his well being improved and he got here able to play. He’s been raking all yr, and tonight was extra of the identical of what we’ve seen from him.”
Solano’s Statcast-projected 403-foot blast got here within the prime of the third inning and gave the Twins their first run of the sport.
“I’ve labored loads on my routine,” Solano stated. “I’m simply attempting to hit the ball exhausting. After I hit the homer, I didn’t anticipate it to go that far and was stunned it went into the second deck.”
The next inning, Minnesota’s offense erupted for 5 runs on 4 hits and two walks to pressure Texas southpaw Jordan Montgomery out of the sport early.
Impressively, every of these 5 runs got here with two outs. After Royce Lewis and Carlos Correa have been retired to start out the body, Jordan Luplow reached safely on a single to heart area. Kyle Farmer adopted by drawing a stroll earlier than Ryan Jeffers scored Luplow on a single to left area.
After Matt Wallner walked to load the bases, Michael A. Taylor scorched a two-run double to left area to tie the sport, 4-4. With runners on second and third, Solano delivered a two-run single to provide the Twins their first lead of the ballgame.
“Our offense was unrelenting,” Baldelli stated. “We put collectively nice at-bats. Plenty of guys had nice at-bats. Solano led the way in which, however we had numerous guys that performed nice.”
The lead didn’t final, although, because the Rangers tacked on two extra runs to push the sport to further innings.
Within the prime of the tenth, the Twins bought the most effective of hard-throwing lefty Aroldis Chapman, scoring three runs earlier than Jhoan Duran allowed only one run within the backside of the inning to shut out the sport.
With Saturday’s nail-biter of a victory, Minnesota gained its second collection in opposition to Texas within the final week.
“While you’re taking part in a detailed sport and lose the lead late, there’s some groups that may let that get them down,” Baldelli stated. “Some groups wouldn’t have the ability to get well, however we recovered. We simply discovered a method at present in opposition to a very good group. I used to be very impressed with how we performed at present.”