Michael A. Taylor walked with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 13th inning to drive in the winning run as the Minnesota Twins rallied from a 5-0 deficit to defeat the Texas Rangers 7-6 on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Royce Lewis hit a grand slam and Donovan Solano, Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler each had two hits for Minnesota, which will carry a six-game lead in the American League Central into the opener of a three-game series with second-place Cleveland on Monday. Dylan Floro (5-6) picked up the win with a scoreless inning of relief.
Jonathan Hernandez (1-2), the eighth Texas pitcher, began the bottom of the 13th with back-to-back strikeouts of Lewis and Ryan Jeffers. But Joey Gallo and Matt Wallner followed with walks to load the bases and Taylor then drove in automatic runner Carlos Correa with a four-pitch walk.
Jonah Heim hit a grand slam, J.P. Martinez homered and Marcus Semien had two hits for Texas, which lost for the ninth time in the last 10 games.
Texas took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on Martinez’s first major league homer, a 404-foot drive off starter Twins Bailey Ober into the plaza behind the right field seats.
The Rangers extended the lead to 5-0 in the fourth. Nathaniel Lowe led off with a double and advanced to third on a bloop single by Mitch Garver. Robbie Grossman then walked to load the bases. One out later, Heim lined a homer into the bleachers in right, his 15th of the season and his second career grand slam.
The Twins cut it to 5-4 in the sixth on Lewis’ grand slam off reliever Chris Stratton. He hit a 423-foot line drive off the bottom of the batter’s eye in dead center, driving in Solano and Polanco, who opened the inning with back-to-back singles, and Correa, who had walked. It was the second grand slam of Lewis’ career.
The Twins tied it in the ninth against reliever Aroldis Chapman. Taylor walked with one out, took second on a disengagement violation and then scored on a single by Solano to force extras.
Neither team could get the automatic runner to third in the 10th and 11th innings. Texas then took a 6-5 lead in the 12th on a sacrifice fly by Corey Seager, driving in automatic runner Leody Taveras, who had tagged and gone to third on Semien’s flyout to start the inning.
The Twins tied it 6-6 when Taylor, who began the inning as the automatic runner, advanced to third on a wild pitch by reliever Brock Burke and scored on a fielder’s choice.
–Field Level Media
