Twins rally to beat Rays 7-6 on Santana's pinch-hit single in 9th and push win streak to 6
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Carlos Santana's pinch-hit single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning pushed the Minnesota Twins past the Tampa Bay Rays 7-6 on Tuesday night for their sixth straight victory, following an hour-plus rain delay.
Manny Margot and Carlos Correa hit singles off closer Pete Fairbanks, who had Correa's comebacker glance off his throwing hand and force the Rays to summon Phil Maton.
Santana hit a 1-1 curveball into right field to easily score Margot and give the Twins their eighth win in nine games.
Max Kepler homered and Ryan Jeffers hit a sacrifice fly for the Twins to tie the game in the fifth, after Brandon Lowe and Josh Lowe hit home runs in the top of the inning for the Rays on each side of the stoppage that lasted an hour and 23 minutes.
Randy Arozarena’s three-run homer in the first off struggling Twins starter Pablo López put the Rays in front.
The Twins were bracing for rainy weather this series, considering sending their weekend starters early to Oakland ahead of a nine-game road trip.
After Willi Castro hit a three-run double with two outs in a four-run fourth inning to ignite the Twins, López promptly let the Rays back in front on Brandon Lowe’s leadoff line drive — through the drops that had just begun to fall — into the seats above right-center field.
With Isaac Paredes facing a 2-2 count and the rain pouring down, home plate umpire Vic Carapazza waved the players off the field as fans scrambled to find the overhangs.
The rain started slowly again in the bottom of the eighth.
Josh Lowe had an RBI single in the third inning, after Paredes reached on a high pop-up that twisted in the pre-storm wind down the left-field line beyond Twins shortstop Correa and fell in the grass after veering late.
Rays starter Aaron Civale’s winless streak stretched to 12 straight starts. The Twins were hitless in their first nine at-bats with runners in scoring position, until Castro’s smash down the right-field line and into the corner cleared the bases. Austin Martin, who walked to load them up, scored on a head-first lunge that got his hand on the plate just in time. Castro came home on Trevor Larnach’s tying double.
The Rays hit three home runs for the second straight game, pushing their season total to 60. They entered the evening with the second-fewest in the major leagues.
López allowed seven hits and one walk with three strikeouts. His ERA ballooned to a season-worst 5.67, the highest it’s been since May 10, 2019.
After an All-Star selection in his Minnesota debut last year and two brilliant appearances in the playoffs, including the wild card series opening win that stopped the record 18-game postseason losing streak, López has stumbled hard this season.
The two-out changeup that Arozarena hit was the first off López to leave the ballpark this year, after throwing it 242 previous times. The most troubling sign for López has been the ineffectiveness of his sweeper he dominated with in 2023. Lowe hit one of those for the tiebreaking shot in the fifth.
Arozarena’s 10th homer tied Paredes for the team lead, but the 2021 American League Rookie of the Year is having his worst season in the major leagues with a .178 batting average and a .617 on-base-plus-slugging percentage entering the game.
UP NEXT
Rays RHP Taj Bradley (2-4, 4.23 ERA) pitches the middle game of the series on Wednesday night. RHP Joe Ryan (5-5, 3.24 ERA) takes the mound for the Twins.
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