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Twins manager Rocco Baldelli made and remade his lineup card after a morning of decisions forced him to write out more than one on Saturday morning.
Whatever he did, it worked.
The Twins hit five booming home runs in an 11-1 victory over the Cubs before an announced audience of 32,270 spectators at overcast, breezy Target Field.
Newly recalled Alex Kirilloff hit two of the five in the first and third innings. Joey Gallo, Jorge Polanco and Carlos Correa struck the other three, including Gallo’s three-run homer just before Kirilloff hit his second shot to give the Twins a 5-0 lead after three innings.
The Twins placed outfielder Max Kepler on the 10-day injury list Saturday morning and recalled Trevor Larnach from Class AAA St. Paul just as he was driving to CHS Field for a 2 p.m. against Indianapolis.
They also recalled Cole Sands and optioned Dereck Rodridguez to St. Paul. Sands pitched an eighth inning when he got out of his own jam and Cubs manager David Ross and DH Eric Hosmer got ejected for an inning-ending strikeout call.
Larnach went directly into that lineup, once he arrived in the clubhouse at 11: 15 a.m. with a backpack slung over his shoulder. He was there a scheduled 1:10 p.m. first pitch delayed 81 minutes by rain.
Twins starting pitcher Joe Ryan threw six scoreless innings and struck out 10, including the side in the sixth inning before Jovani Moran entered in relief in the seventh and allowed the Cubs’ only run.
Ryan has struck out double-digit hitters four times now in his career, three of them this season. He allowed four hits and walked one as well.
The Twins avenged the Cubs’ 6-2 victory Friday night without designated hitter Byron Buxton, who wasn’t on the lineup card because of one of his weekly maintenance days off.
Larnach was sent to Class AAA St. Paul on May 5 both to rediscover a swing that was outstanding in spring training and also to create room for Kirilloff’s bat that had been on a rehab assignments in Class A Fort Myers and St. Paul.
He played eight games at Fort Myers and three more in St. Paul before he was called back to the Twins.
His first home was the Twins’ second at-bat of the game. After lead-off man Joey Gallo flew out to right field, Kirilloff drove a 1-0 pitch into the left-center field field seats 382 feet away.
It was his Kirilloff’s first homer this season.The second came in the third inning, immediately after Gallo had hit a three-run home run in front of him to give the Twins a 4-0 lead.
This one came on an 0-2 pitch, dead straight over the center-field wall for a 5-0 lead.Kirilloff’s two homers were his third career multi-homer game – and his first since July 5, 2022 at the Chicago White Sox.
Gallo entered Saturday’s game 3-for-26 from the plate in May and had struck out in seven consecutive games. Polanco made it 7-0 with a two-run homer in a 10-pitch at bat that he eventually ended with a 409-foot shot into the right-field plaza for his third home run this season.
Correa added a solo homer himself, his sixth this season, in the seventh inning and the Twins scored three more times in the eighth.
Ryan made his 40th career start Saturday and his eighth this season. His career long streak eight-game consecutive winning decisions and his first loss in 2023 ended with last Sunday’s 2-0 loss at Cleveland.
He went 8-0 with a 2.06 ERA in 56.2 innings from Sept. 13, 2022 to April 25, 2023.
Baldelli calls Ryan a changed pitcher from last season to this one.
“That’s what real growth and development and just turning yourself into a better player looks like,” Baldelli said. “He left last season with a mission in mind and put a lot of resources and energy into that and he turned himself in a new pitcher.”
He said Ryan — a minor leaguer and U.S. Olympian acquired from Tampa for veteran Nelson Cruz two seasons ago – came into the major leagues with his biggest strength a “good, usable fastball” that he could attack batters and get outs.
“The other stuff was a work in progress,” Baldelli said. “He flipped those things into strengths and that only happen with really, focused, direct work. He has real weapons he can rely on, on top of the fastball, it makes the hitter’s job extremely difficult.”
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