Outfitted in their new threads before the biggest crowd of the season, the Twins walked off with a 6-5, come-from-behind victory over the Oakland Athletics in 10 innings on Friday night at Target Field.
Max Kepler set a Target Field record for home runs with a three-run, sixth-inning shot that tied the score 4-4. Then he delivered a walk-off single by driving in 10th-inning runner Austin Martin from second base, making his team 3-0 in extra-inning games this season.
Kepler did so after he had been drilled in the elbow with Lucas Erceg's 99 mph sinker during an eighth inning, when the Twins scored the tying run without managing a hit. The Twins benefitted from an A's throwing error, a hit batter and two walks. Oakland 100 mph-throwing reliever Mason Miller came in with the bases loaded and walked Carlos Santana on a full-count pitch, forcing Carlos Correa home with the tying run.
Attendance on a glorious summer night was announced at 35,631, more than the 35,595 of Opening Day. Fans came to see the new City Connect uniforms and a postgame concert featuring rapper Flo Rida. And although they didn't know it, they came to see Kepler hit more home runs at Target Field than anyone else.
"It was a beautiful night at the ballpark," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "Stadium was rocking and I hope everyone was excited about what they came to see and they got to see it. Now they get the concert. What's better than this?"
Kepler's record-setting homer — his fifth this season — and four RBI came three weeks after he played his 1,000th game with the Twins. He finished 3-for-4, his first three-hit game of the season.
"Honored, grateful, living a dream," Kepler said.
His 426-foot homer high into the center-field seats came in his third plate appearance against A's starter Mitch Spence, on a first-pitch slider. Kepler had to be motioned home by the second-base umpire after the blast went so far and high, Kepler couldn't track it. He now has 81 homers at Target Field, one more than former teammate Brian Dozier and five more than Miguel Sanó.
Two innings later, Kepler got hit hard just above his right elbow. "It got me good," he said. "I got hit there a couple years back and my bursa sac blew up. This one blew up, too, but I wouldn't say as bad. I dodged a bullet it didn't hit a bone."
He stayed in and, again swinging at the first pitch he saw from lefthander Scott Alexander, delivered the 10th walk-off plate appearance of his Twins career, tying Kent Hrbek for third place all-time. Only Kirby Puckett and Harmon Killebrew had more, with 11.
"I was thinking of bunting, but one of my hitting coaches said forget that, swing the bat," Kepler said. "I didn't know how much swing would feel, but I just took a hack and that happened."
Oakland took a quick 4-0 lead on Shea Langeliers' first-inning grand slam off Simeon Woods Richardson, then reclaimed the lead in the seventh on Brent Rooker's RBI triple off Griffin Jax. But the A's couldn't hang on either time.
Twins closer Jhoan Duran shut out the A's in the ninth and 10th innings to earn the victory, his first two-inning outing in nearly a year. He walked one and struck out one.
"We haven't done it much," Baldelli said of extending Duran, who threw only 20 pitches. "I don't think we've done it this year. So it's not necessarily an easy decision. And it's not like he was down for the last three days and completely rested. He pitched two days ago. It was kind of one of those decisions that had to be made, that didn't make itself."
