The Twins saw their lead disappear in the eighth inning and fell behind two innings later.
No matter. These days, the Twins are finding ways and everybody’s doing their part.
On Sunday, that meant DaShawn Keirsey Jr., who was hitting just .067 in limited at-bats this season, hitting a walk-off knock, to send the Twins to a 7-6 win over the San Francisco Giants in extra innings in the series finale at Target Field.
The single, which brought home Brooks Lee, snapped an 0-for-17 stretch for the outfielder and was the first walk-off hit of the rookie’s career. With it, the Twins finished off a perfect homestand and have now won eight-straight games. They sit over .500 for the first time all season.
Keirsey’s heroics came after the Twins tied the game minutes earlier when the automatic runner, Ty France, came around to score on a ground ball hit by Ryan Jeffers, matching the Giants, who scored their own auto runner in the top half of the inning.
The Twins spent much of the day battling back after falling behind early.
Starter Pablo López may not have been at his best, but he did depart the game with the Twins leading. López loaded the bases in the first inning but was able to minimize the damage, thanks in part to a nice sliding catch from Willi Castro, which limited what could have been a two-run Heliot Ramos hit to a sacrifice fly.
The starter gave up two more runs in the fourth inning on a Ramos opposite-field home run and a fourth run in the fifth, which scored on a sacrifice fly after he balked the runner over to third.
The Twins used a somewhat similar formula to score their early runs.
A two-run home run of their own — theirs from Lee in the fourth — cut into the Giants’ lead and then Byron Buxton’s sacrifice fly sliced into it once more in the fifth.
They broke through once more in the sixth when, after loading the bases with no outs, Royce Lewis broke out of an 0-for-36 stretch with his first hit of the year. The go-ahead run scored on Harrison Bader’s fielder’s choice and the Twins held that lead until the Giants stormed back in the eighth with a run off reliever Griffin Jax.
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