It took a little something from everyone on Saturday.
There was Ty France, Friday night’s hero, driving in a pair of runs to pull the Twins within a run after Harrison Bader had homered earlier in the fifth inning. There was Jorge Alcala, preserving a one-run deficit by throwing a shaky but scoreless sixth, retiring the heart of the Royals’ lineup. There was Kody Clemens, flipping his bat after connecting with a Michael Wacha fastball to the tie game up in the sixth. There was Jhoan Duran, stranding the bases loaded to in the ninth to preserve the tie.
And finally, there was Carlos Correa and Ryan Jeffers, both fresh off the bench, drawing walks in the ninth to set the stage for Brooks Lee, who made walk-off winners for the Twins for the second straight day. The Twins beat the Royals 5-4 on Saturday afternoon at Target Field, using a Lee single to capture their second win in as many days over their division foes.
“I just tried to get something out over the plate, stick with my approach and hopefully good things happen,” Lee said, “And it did. I mishit that ball, too, but I think with a good approach and a good swing, it took care of itself.”
Lee, called the day a “roller coaster,” starting it 0 for 2 at the plate. He said he kept reminding himself that he had a few more opportunities later on.
He did, and he made the most of them, finishing the game with hits in his last three at-bats. It was the first walk-off of his career.
“He’s really developing as a hitter in a lot of ways. Huge moment. I mean, that’s just beautiful,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Walk-offs, you know we’ve had two in a row here, but they don’t happen that often. And you remember every one of them. They’re very special to the players, as they should be. You win the game for your team out there, it feels really good.”
While Lee put the finishing touches on the Twins’ 16th win in their last 18 games, this one was a collective effort.
The Twins (29-22), who were quieted by Wacha for the first four innings of the game, finally broke through in the fifth. Bader’s home run got the Twins on the board, and after Willi Castro was hit by a pitch and Christian Vázquez singled, France brought them both home, making it 4-3 at the time.
Clemens pulled the Twins even with the Royals (28-25) an inning later with his fourth home run of the season.
“You’ve got to keep it close,” Baldelli said. “If you give yourself a chance by keeping it close, things can work out. And we’re confident offensively even if we’re not rolling, we still feel like we’re about to get rolling and that’s what we saw as the game went along.”
The Twins had fallen in a hole in the third when starter Zebby Matthews, making just his second major league start of the season, allowed a two-out single to Maikel Garcia with the bases loaded, scoring a pair of runs. Matthews struck out a career-high nine batters in his outing, which lasted four innings. He walked just one and while he said he needs to be more efficient to pitch deeper into starts, he called it a “good step” from his last start.
After his departure, he made way for Justin Topa, who gave up a pair of runs in the fifth inning. But after that, Twins pitchers shutout the Royals, allowing the offense to climb back in.
“We’re in every game. We’re down 4-0 early and it doesn’t feel like it,” Lee said. “Our offense is going to start clicking at some point during the game and we’re going to put up big numbers.”
And on Saturday, they did.
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