Trevor Larnach hit the longest home run by a Twin this season, and Kyle Garlick broke a tense tie with a home run for the second consecutive day. Yet the highlight of the day, maybe of the year so far, for the Twins' offense was still to come.
"That was just flat-out awesome to watch," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said after his team responded to Baltimore's dramatic, go-ahead, eighth-inning home run with a six-run outburst that allowed them to win for the fourth time in five games, 8-3 over the Orioles at Target Field.
A taut pitchers' duel between AL ERA leader John Means and Twins righthander Matt Shoemaker was washed away by a 45-minute spring shower, replaced once the storm passed by bullpen blunders. Jorge Alcala needed only two pitches to give away Minnesota's slim 2-1 lead to DJ Stewart, who was hitting just .202 at the time yet blasted a 98-mph fastball onto the right-field plaza.
Instead of fearing a loss that has so often felt inevitable during this rocky season, the Twins roared to life against three increasingly hapless Baltimore reliever, posting their biggest late-inning rally of the season. Maybe it was inevitable, though: The Twins have now beaten the Orioles in 13 consecutive meetings, dating back to Opening Day 2018.
"Every guy in our lineup went up there and battled," Baldelli said. "Just grinding the at-bat all the way to the end and making something happen. Trying to find a barrel. Swinging at strikes, taking the tough pitches. That was beautiful."
Andrelton Simmons started it by drawing a walk off Tanner Scott, and moving up on a wild pitch. Garlick singled him to third, and once Cesar Valdez replaced Scott on the mound, Josh Donaldson tried a squeeze bunt. It didn't work — he eventually hit a sacrifice fly that scored Simmons and tied the game — but it got his team's attention.
"He was enthusiastic about it, therefore I am enthusiastic about it. Honestly, he just wanted to get the run home," Baldelli said. "To go out there and hit a ball good to center field, to score that run, that's a big-time play. There were a lot of big-time at-bats today. That was one of them."
So was Mitch Garver's. After Alex Kirilloff singled Garlick to second, Garver laced a double the opposite way into the right-field corner, scoring both runners and putting the Twins up for good. The next four batters all singled off Valdez and Tyler Wells, putting the game out of reach.
"I watched a lot of film on [Valdez] and understood what he was going to try to do to me," Garver said of the occasional sidearmer. "I saw him drop his arm down and when he does that, the ball has a little more sink on it. So I just stuck my nose in it and stayed with it."
BOXSCORE: Twins 8, Baltimore 3
It was a dramatic finish to a game between the teams with MLB's worst records, a game that pitted Means, who pitched a no-hitter in Seattle less than three weeks ago, against Matt Shoemaker, a pitcher who is trying to turn around his season, just like his team. Shoemaker allowed only one run over six innings, Garlick homered and threw out a runner at the plate, and Larnach launched a 461-foot blast into the Catch restaurant/bar high above the center-field wall, the longest home run of the season by a Twin and the seventh to land there in Target Field history.
Even better: The Twins embarked on two solid weeks against the non-contender Orioles and Royals with a big win.
"Yeah, we're building momentum. We're creating it amongst our group and then carrying it out onto the field and riding it," Baldelli said. "Going through really good, positive periods of time out on the field, and when we're in a lull, we find it."
