DETROIT – The Twins weren’t having much success hitting with runners in scoring position this weekend, so they didn’t mind a little help from the Tigers defense Sunday.
A throwing error tied the score in the eighth inning. A booted ground ball, plus another misplay on the throw to the plate, gave the Twins a lead in the 10th inning in their 6-3 victory at Comerica Park to take two of three games in the weekend series.
For a Twins offense that leads the league in strikeouts, sometimes it’s as simple as putting the ball in play. And taking some chances on the basepaths.
With Carlos Correa the automatic runner at second base in the 10th inning, Royce Lewis hit a ground ball that deflected off the glove of Tigers third baseman Nick Maton and rolled into shallow left field. Correa was aggressively waved to the plate, and scored when catcher Jake Rogers dropped the throw from left field while trying to apply the tag.
“When you strike out, no one is doing anything except for the pitcher,” said Lewis, who had three hits and a walk. “Honestly, I get frustrated after a while. What I said to [hitting coach David Popkins] is ‘I’m going to turn into [Luis] Arraez today. Just touch the ball. There’s a lot of grass out there.’ ”
The Twins were playing for one more run when Ryan Jeffers dropped a sacrifice bunt to move Lewis to third base, but it turned into two add-on runs. With Detroit’s infield drawn in, Willi Castro lined an RBI single that deflected off the glove of leaping second baseman Zack Short. Castro stole second and scored on a Christian Vázquez ground ball single.
All three hits in the 10th inning — all with runners in scoring position — were balls that broke through the infield.
“A home run is always great, but we’re not going to hit a home run every time we step to the plate, so what are we trying to do?” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Making that decision before you get to two strikes, that’s a key. Our guys have done a better job of that, I think.”
The game might not have reached extra innings if not for an eighth-inning throwing error from Maton, which was high and wide of his first baseman, enabling Lewis to score from second.
The Twins had two hits in 23 at-bats with runners in scoring position before the 10th inning, and they wasted one of them in the fifth inning. Edouard Julien likely cost his team a tying run with a poor baserunning decision.
On second base after hitting a one-out double, Julien’s first instinct was to retreat toward second when Donovan Solano hit a soft line drive through the middle of the infield. Neither middle infielder was close to the ball, and the miscue forced Julien to stop at third on the single to center.
The mistake loomed larger when Correa, the next batter, grounded into an inning-ending double play.
“You don’t want to blindly just run on contact, you can’t do that,” Baldelli said. “But I think he could have been probably a little bit more aware of where that defender was before he made the decision to break all the way back to second base.”
Vázquez, of all baserunners, set the tone early when he advanced a base twice on fly balls in front of the warning track to center field in the third inning. Solano rewarded him with a slow jog to the plate when he crushed a two-run homer with the wind blowing in.
“In spring training, the team showed a highlight of [Vázquez] stealing some bags — it was pretty funny,” said Bailey Ober, who struck out a season-high eight batters across six innings. “He’s got sneaky speed.”
The Twins, who have won four of their past five games, found different ways to take a series from a divisional rival.
“I was pleased, big picture wise, with what we saw,” Baldelli said. “How it all played out each and every inning, it was tough. It didn’t come easily in any way.”