Carlos Santana hit a three-run homer that broke the tie, and Ryan Jeffers also hit a home run with a bat that looked like a pencil, leading the playoff-contending Minnesota Twins to a 4-3 win over the Texas Rangers on Friday night.
A day after hitting a sacrifice fly that put the Twins ahead in the ninth inning, Santana’s 17th home run with one out in the fifth inning gave Minnesota a 4-1 lead. This hit also knocked Texas starter Andrew Heaney (4-13) out of the game. Heaney now has the most losses in the majors.
“Challenging game,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We battled through it and found ways to do good things. We had a couple of really big swings … Jeffers and Santana coming through really big for us.”
The Twins (69-53) are now 16 games above .500 for the first time since their 101-win season in 2019. They are also within three games of Cleveland for the AL Central lead after the Guardians lost. Minnesota has the best record in the MLB since April 22 with 62 wins, after only seven wins in their first 20 games.
They currently hold the AL’s second wild card spot.
Reigning World Series champion Texas (56-67) is now 11 games under .500 for the first time this season. They have lost 15 of their last 20 games since a five-game winning streak in late July.
Twins rookie Simeon Woods Richardson (4-3), who is from Texas, allowed two runs over five innings. Jhoan Duran, the sixth Minnesota pitcher, pitched the ninth inning to earn his 18th save in 19 attempts.
“We battled our butts off, you know, every pitch. It wasn’t, from my standpoint, wasn’t the best outing, but I knew I had to keep everything controlled and just give my team the best chance to win. And for the bullpen to come in and give a tremendous job, our bats coming alive. … All that stuff really matters.”
Heaney struck out eight batters while throwing 97 pitches, starting with 16 pitches to Manuel Margot. Margot fouled off 11 pitches, eight of them in a row after reaching a full count, before finally flying out to left. Santana and Max Kepler both flew out on just one pitch afterward.
