The Twins held a party on Friday, hosting 35,631 of their closest friends, wearing their new threads and treating everyone to a postgame Flo Rida concert. And while a group of party crashers tried their best to break up the fun, they were ultimately unsuccessful in their bid.
In front of the largest crowd of the season, on the day the Twins debuted their long-awaited City Connect uniforms, Minnesota stormed back twice to beat the Oakland Athletics 6-5 in 10 innings at Target Field.
Max Kepler played hero with a walk-off single in the 10th inning after a long home run earlier tied the game. His late heroics came after an error, hit-by-pitch — Kepler was hit flush in the elbow — and a pair of walks forced in a run to tie the game in the eighth.
The Twins were unable to get more out of their bases-loaded opportunity against flame-throwing closer Mason Miller, sending to the game to the ninth tied. But the Twins’ own hard-throwing closer, Jhoan Duran, threw two scoreless innings in the ninth and 10th to keep the Twins’ hopes alive and allow them to prevail.
The dramatic ending came on a night that started inauspiciously for the Twins when Simeon Woods Richardson issued walks to the first two batters he faced.
Both would haunt.
Before he got out of a 37-pitch first inning, Woods Richardson served up a grand slam to Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers, putting the Twins in a deep hole early.
The Twins eventually climbed out of it, using a Byron Buxton RBI triple in the second inning and Kepler three-run homer in the sixth to do so. The home run was the 81st of Kepler’s career at Target Field, making him the new record holder at the ballpark, which opened in 2010.
It also rejuvenated the crowd, which had been yearning for something to cheer for. But the game wasn’t tied for long.
On a night where Twins pitchers walked six hitters, a one-out free pass to JJ Bleday came back to bite the Twins. Former Twin Brent Rooker’s triple off the wall in center field brought home Bleday, giving Oakland back the lead.
That held until the Twins took advantage of the free bases Lucas Erceg gave them in the eighth.
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