No telling if the face-to-face rancor helped. Who knows if the finger-in-the-face pointing changed anything. The hat-throwing, it’s impossible to connect that with the run-scoring.
But Rocco Baldelli on Wednesday tried a little fight-the-power passion, and the Twins finally beat the Red Sox. Related or not, both seemed to fire up a Target Field crowd that has watched plenty of frustrating losses lately.
In fact, the crowd of 23,912 shared Baldelli’s in-your-face sentiment in the 10th inning, when replay failed to overturn a close play at first base. And what the heck, maybe that rage helped Kyle Farmer line a single to center three pitches later to deliver an emotional 5-4 victory for the Twins. Courtesy runner Willi Castro scored from third, and the Twins mobbed Farmer for delivering their sixth walk-off win of the season.
“You can shake things up, is what you can do,” the Twins’ manager, when asked about his slump-busting strategy, declared before the Twins’ 5-4 10-inning victory over Boston. Maybe his stress simply boiled over, or maybe he genuinely felt disrespected, but Baldelli acted out that impulse in the fourth inning, when Joey Gallo was called out on a changeup that he believed missed the outside corner.
As Gallo turned to protest, Baldelli hustled out and took over the argument with home plate umpire David Rackley, who didn’t listen long before ejecting him. Baldelli argued a bit longer, then headed for the dugout.
But Rackley, apparently hearing Gallo shout something from the dugout, then ejected the slump-ridden outfielder, too, and Baldelli charged onto the field to loudly register his objection. The manager threw his hat, shouted at crew chief Chris Guccione, and finally stomped off, his arms stretched wide in disgust.
Baldelli’s ejection, the third of the season, and the second of Gallo’s career, were just the tip of an odd game that included lots of adventure on the base paths. The Red Sox, after all, stole two bases, were caught once, advanced on a pickoff throw that glanced off Alex Kirilloff’s glove, and lost a scoring opportunity when Alex Verdugo was easily thrown out by Michael A. Taylor while trying to stretch a single into a double.
The victory was a remarkable one for the Twins, considering that the Red Sox, who had scored 50 runs in reeling off six straight wins, collected at least one hit in the first eight innings. The Twins’ offense, however, was similarly amped up for a change, with four extra-base hits, including Max Kepler’s second home run in two days.
Sonny Gray surrendered three runs over five innings in another uneven performance. A first-inning walk to Justin Turner turned into a two-out run when Rafael Devers followed with a double to deep center, and Turner walloped a Gray sinker into the second deck, 447 feet away, two innings later. Gray escaped a runner-on-third jam in the fourth, but Alex Verdugo’s triple into the right field corner turned into another run in the fifth, when Turner lined an RBI single.
Brock Stewart and Griffin Jax each escaped their innings without allowing a run, but Jhoan Duran did not. A one-out walk to Masataka Yoshida proved costly when he stole second base, then scored the game-tying run on Triston Casas’ double to the bullpens in left-center.
The Twins went out on just six pitches in the first inning against Boston righthander Garrett Whitlock, but then strung together three hits in a two-run second inning, with singles by Kepler and Christian Vázquez driving home runs.
Edouard Julien’s leadoff double in the third turned into a run when, after Julien moved up on Kirilloff’s fly out, Carlos Correa dribbled a soft grounder up the third base line, leaving the Red Sox no chance at stopping Julien from scoring.
And in the sixth, Kepler hit his ninth homer of the season, and fifth with the score tied, by smashing a low-and-in changeup over the granite overhang in right field.