8/31 GAME NOTES: Walk-Off Win in Ninth Gives Twins a Three-Game Sweep Over White Sox
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Thursday’s win was a strange one for the Minnesota Twins. They came from behind to tie the game in the fifth inning, only to have closer Matt Belisle give up the go-ahead home run in the ninth. They bunted -- oh, they bunted -- to no avail in both the eighth and ninth innings.
And yet despite all that -- they won. They won their 20th game of the month of August, wrapping up a sweep against a torpedoing White Sox club for the Twins’ first 20-win month since May 2015.
And that isn’t even the tip of the iceberg as far as the weirdness that won the game.
Newly-minted White Sox closer Juan Minaya came on in the ninth to try protect a 4-3 lead after Alen Hanson homered to the right field flower pots in the top half of the inning. He gave up a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Ehire Adrianza, but got the first out when Zack Granite’s bunt was popped up to catcher Rob Brantly. Brian Dozier followed with a walk, and Eddie Rosario golfed a game-tying single into right, plating Adrianza and moving Dozier -- the winning run -- to third. Then Joe Mauer walked to load the bases.
Jorge Polanco -- perhaps the most unlikely cleanup hitter in the league -- attempted to ambush the first pitch he saw from Minaya, but managed to hit just a dying quail of a liner that would still have won the game if not for the pitcher’s keen reflexes.
That set up a do-or-die situation between Minaya and Twins right fielder Max Kepler, and fans didn’t have to wait long for resolution, as the righty’s first-pitch slider to Kepler clipped him on top of the foot, sending the Twins dugout out to mob him and 21,288 fans playing weekday hooky home happy with a 5-4 walk-off -- or rather, limp-off -- win.
“No, there’s not,” Kepler said to Fox Sports North sideline reporter Audra Martin when asked if there was a better way to cap a series. “I’m not going to focus on all the aspects (for a 20-win month); I’m just trying to keep it simple.”
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