Twins 5, Rays 4: Never in doubt

For the first five innings of Sunday afternoon’s Twins-Rays game, it looked like it might be another pretty dominant win for the Twins. Charlie Barnes had only allowed one run (a solo homer in the top of the 5th) and Josh Donaldson had driven in three runs all by himself with a single in the first and a double in the 4th. After 5 innings, the score stood at 4-1 Twins. It would not stay that way for long. Wander Franco (fun fact: he is the first Major Leaguer ever that is younger than me) launched a 2 run homer off Twins reliever Edgar Garcia to cut it to 4-3. One inning later, 2020 playoffs legend Randy Arozarena beat out an infield single to tie the game at 4 apiece, and it was at this point that many Twins fans were probably expecting Tampa Bay to take the lead. Because, you know, that’s how this season has gone. They would leave the bases full, however, and the game remained tied. The score was 4-4 all the way up until the bottom of the 9th, when Max Kepler tripled to set up Jorge Polanco for a walkoff sacrifice fly. This meant that the Twins won their third consecutive series for the first time all season, and those three series have been against the AL West, AL Central, and AL East division leaders respectively. Can someone please make this make sense?

STUDS

Josh Donaldson: 2-4, 3RBI

Max Kepler: 2-3, 3 runs scored, triple in 9th.

Charlie Barnes: 5IP, 3H, 1ER, 3K.

DUDS

NO DUDS TWINS WIN!!!!

Thanks to everyone who joined us in the game thread. The Twins welcome the Guardians to Target Field tomorrow night for the first of three. Enjoy your Sunday night, friends.