Twins 5, Diamondbacks 3: Hometown boy makes good—again

Yesterday, some kid from St. Paul showed his impact on the Minnesota Twins organization. Today, a Minnesota suburbanite from a bit further north—Forest Lake—was the decisive factor in the Twins’ 3-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks. After a season of biding his time with the St. Paul Saints, Matt Wallner finally got his opportunity to shine on a rainy Sunday afternoon!

In the wake of MLB’s biggest brawl in quite some time, today’s contest took similar heavyweight fight format after a 2-hour rain-delayed start:

Round 1 (Top of the 5th)

An Arizona double, single, and then force-out (with a double play narrowly missed) from Tommy Pham got the D-Backs on the board first. AZ 1, MN 0

Round 2 (Bottom of the 6th)

Carlos Correa provided a clutch two-out, two-run knock off NL All-Star Game starter Zac Gallen. MN 2, AZ 1.

Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

Round 3 (Top of the 7th)

After Corbin Carroll coaxed a leadoff walk from Emilio Pagan, it haunted when Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. doubled shortly thereafter. MN 2, AZ 2.

Round 4 (Top of the 9th)

Just needing two more outs to get to “walk-it-off territory”, Caleb Theilbar surrendered a massive ding-dong to Christian Walker. AZ 3, MN 2.

The Final Round (Bottom of the 9th)

Not feeling sorry for themselves whatsoever, the Twins immediately jabbed back with a first-pitch Max Kepler dinger to tie the game off sterling Arizona reliever Paul Sewald. Ever-reliable Jorge Polanco drew a walk, bringing Wallner to the plate...

Your final: Minnesota Twins 5, Arizona Diamondbacks 3! Try as they might to slither away from Target Field with a victory, the Twins put the boot down on the Snakes and actually finished off a sweep. With the Cleveland Guardians again losing to the Chicago Old-Time-Boxers White Sox, the Twins now sit 4.5 games clear of any AL Central opponent.

All in all, an incredibly fun game for those who stuck with it in-person or following along at home. Hopefully a springboard to bigger and better things for the 2023 stretch run!

Studs

The Forest Lake Rangers athletics program for crafting such a fine product.

Duds

No duds—Twins (walk-off) win!

Comment of the Game

As someone who was ironically once employed by the Forest Lake Wal-Mart, I appreciated gintzer’s sentiment perhaps more than anyone.