Good things happen when you don't strike out. Maybe the Twins will catch on.
Three outs away from letting the White Sox execute one of the ugliest shutouts of the season, the Twins instead escaped with one of the most surprising walk-off victories of the year.
"A win like that is always such a good boost," Ryan Jeffers said after singling home Kyle Farmer in the 12th inning, finishing off a 5-4 victory and a sweep of the White Sox. "We waited until the ninth inning to start scoring, but we scored when it mattered."
They did, turning an aggravating afternoon of strikeouts and missed chances into a stirring comeback and a three-game lead in the American League Central Division, their widest in more than a month. The Twins put 11 runners on base in five innings against Lucas Giolito yet couldn't score. They went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position over the first whiff-filled eight innings, and the one hit merely resulted in an out at the plate.
Just when it appeared they would go down meekly, however, a walk and three ninth-inning hits against Kendall Graveman produced three runs to send the game to extra innings, where they excel. They matched Chicago's 10th-inning run, then shut out the White Sox until Jeffers delivered the winner, improving the Twins to 9-4 in games tied after nine.
"When we're not getting the runs, we're kind of starting to believe in ourselves, that we can come back and get hits on whoever's out there," Jeffers said. "When your bullpen is able to hold in extra innings, it's a huge bonus. You get that [automatic] runner on second base, and it feels like it's easy to get him in from there."
They even used a pair of players, Willi Castro and Joey Gallo, who are still having vision trouble after contracting conjunctivitis.
"Yeah, pink eye can't hold these guys down," manager Rocco Baldelli said.
Nope, but strikeouts sure can, and the Twins piled up 15 Sunday, giving them 1,035 on the season — they are the only major league team in four figures — and 56 games in double digits. But 14 of them came in the first eight innings, including seven with runners in scoring position, and the Twins appeared headed to their eighth shutout of the year. They only struck out once in the final four innings and scored in three of them.
With his team down 3-0 in the ninth, Matt Wallner led off with a walk, which seemed to wake the Twins and the announced crowd of 29,001 from their slumber. Jeffers followed with a single, and Castro — pinch hitting for Michael A. Taylor, who had struck out three times with runners in scoring position — smacked a double to left-center, scoring the Twins' first run.
Carlos Correa followed with a sharply hit fly ball that scored Jeffers, but Edouard Julien also flew out, leaving the rally riding on Alex Kirilloff. He came through on Graveman's low-and-away sinker, serving the ball down the left-field line for a tying double.
"Slicing it up, right down the line. He can use every inch of the field," Baldelli said of Kirilloff. "We're always confident in our guys, but that's a big spot. It takes a really good swing to come through in a spot like that."
The White Sox reclaimed the lead in the 10th on Tim Anderson's two-out double off Jhoan Duran, but the Twins countered with a run when pinch runner Gallo moved to third on reliever Tanner Banks' wild pitch and scored on a 178-foot sacrifice pop fly by pinch hitter Farmer.
"It's just a great, instinctual baseball play. It's a shallow pop-up, the sky is bright and their outfielder [Oscar Colás] had a little bit of a time getting to it," Baldelli said. "You have to read it. Joey tagged and went hard and after a couple of steps could tell that he wasn't going to be able to get up and make a play."
Griffin Jax in the 11th inning and Emilio Pagán in the 12th retired the White Sox in order, the latter setting up the final rally. Farmer led off the bottom of the 12th with a single to right, but Gallo held up at third base. After Byron Buxton was intentionally walked, Christian Vázquez hit into a double play, with Gallo forced out at home. Jeffers made it moot, however, by lining Jesse Scholtens' 1-1 pitch into right field, scoring Farmer.
"It was great, a great comeback win," said Bailey Ober, who gave up three runs over six innings, his seventh consecutive quality start. "We stayed fighting, every single one of our guys."
