There has been little for Twins fans to cheer for lately, particularly in the second half of the season. But for one final day this year, they got to sit outside in warm, sunny weather and cheer their team to a win.
In the final game at Target Field this season, those in attendance were treated to a well-pitched game with some late offense as the Twins snapped Cleveland’s 10-game winning streak with a 6-2 win in the finale of their four-game series.
“They were a hot team coming into the series. The only thing we could do is be a roadblock to them,” starter Simeon Woods Richardson said of the Guardians (84-72), who are making a late-season push for a playoff spot. “They’re striving, but they’ve still got to go through us.”
In the beginning, it looked like they might.
After the Twins were blanked in both games of Saturday’s doubleheader, Woods Richardson gave up a home run to left fielder Steven Kwan to lead off the game. Another first-inning run scored on a sacrifice fly before Woods Richardson could get his teammates back into the dugout.
But from there, he settled in, giving up just one other hit in five innings.
“It was a long one after that first inning, but I was like, ‘OK, you’ve got to buckle down and get going. You kind of wasted a lot of your pitches getting through the first, so now you’ve got to get going,’ ” Woods Richardson said.
He did, and his efforts, and some scoreless relief from the bullpen, kept the Twins (67-89) close long enough for the offense to claw back into the game.
Kody Clemens’ third-inning single brought home Byron Buxton to cut Cleveland’s lead in half in the third inning. And in the sixth, Brooks Lee’s 16th home run of the season, a two-run shot, gave the Twins their first lead.
The Twins piled on in the eighth with pinch hitter Royce Lewis, in for Trevor Larnach, launching a three-run home run to left-center field, prompting him to spin around to his teammates in the dugout as he rounded first base to scream in excitement. All six runs the Twins scored came with two outs.
“You never know if it’s going to be your last at-bat here or what. You never know,” Lewis said. “I just wanted to enjoy it, and my grandma told me, ‘Hit like you’re hitting on my birthday.’ Every time I’ve hit on her birthday, I’ve hit a homer. So, she told me that last night and it worked out.”
Twins relievers Kody Funderburk, Pierson Ohl, Cole Sands and Travis Adams each tossed a scoreless inning — with one hit combined.
“It’s a great way to end things for all the fans that are here right now watching us play our last home game. The drama was there. It was an enjoyable game,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We’re playing a tough team right now, and to be able to figure that out, make it work, and for the guys to come through the way we did in our last home game was fantastic.”
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