No team in the American League had allowed fewer home runs than the Cleveland Guardians. No team in the American League depends upon home runs for a larger share of its scoring.
Rocco Baldelli’s attitude? Bring it on.
“They’re going to have to beat us at our game, and we’re going to have to beat them at their game,” the Twins manager said before the first of three important games against their chief AL Central pursuer. “Just do what your team does well.”
Point taken. And, nine innings later, point made.
Matt Wallner and Jorge Polanco each smacked their 10th home run of the season Monday night, and for the second consecutive day — a first in Twins history — Royce Lewis smashed a grand slam, and the Twins rode that display of power to a 10-6 victory over Cleveland at Target Field.
The victory, Minnesota’s fourth in its past five games, widens the Twins’ division lead over the Guardians to a season-high seven games with 30 left to play. And it allowed the Twins to shrug off Kenta Maeda’s worst start since April.
The veteran righthander faced 20 batters and allowed eight to reach base and six to score. Guardians catcher Bo Naylor had the biggest blast, a two-run shot into the juniper vines beyond the center-field fence, forcing the Twins to overcome a large early deficit for the second consecutive day.
Maeda has allowed 12 runs over 13 innings in his past three starts, a conspicuous slump on a day when another starter going through rough times, Bailey Ober, was demoted out of the rotation and off the team.
But it didn’t matter once the Twins’ offense hit high gear against Guardians rookie Xzavion Curry. The righthander balked in a run in the second inning, then seemed to fall apart. He allowed a run-scoring hit by Donovan Solano, then walked Edouard Julien to load the bases for fellow rookie Lewis, Sunday’s hero for smacking a deficit-narrowing grand slam against the Rangers.
Lewis didn’t wait long. After taking a low-and-away strike, he zeroed in on a curveball on the outside corner, whacking it into the Cleveland bullpen as the announced crowd of 20,323 erupted.
Once their sluggers extended the lead, the Twins turned to more young players — pitchers, this time — to finish off the victory, and they came through better than Baldelli could have dreamed.
Kody Funderburk, called up to the majors about an hour before the game began, pitched two spotless innings, striking out three and not allowing a ball to be hit out of the infield. He was credited with the win, the first Twin since Fernando Romero in 2018 to do so in his debut. Josh Winder relieved him and outdid him, retiring all nine Guardians he faced to earn his first big-league save.