SAN FRANCISCO — Maybe there’s something about the sea air in the bayside sky, or the light reflecting off the water. Whatever the reason, umpires needed video replay three times Saturday to determine whether fly balls passed the Oracle Park foul poles on the fair side or foul.
The result: Matt Chapman’s blast off Simeon Woods Richardson was foul. So was Max Kepler’s, off former teammate Taylor Rogers.
But much to the irritation of the San Francisco Giants fans in the announced crowd of 32,582, Carlos Santana’s sixth-inning, third-deck-high fly ball came down, umpires eventually ruled, just inside the pole — the tiebreaking blow in the Twins’ 4-2 victory.
“So I said to Jayce [Tingler, his bench coach], because I’m an optimistic person, especially when we need to score some runs, I said, ‘He did it! He did it!” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Pretty amazing to keep that ball fair with a swing like that.”
The home run was significant for a couple of baseball-trivia reasons, too. It completed the veteran slugger’s collection of at least one home run in all 30 major league parks, though the fan who caught it wanted Giants season tickets in trade, which the Twins declined. And it was his second against Rogers, matching the 10th-inning grand slam Santana hit in Target Field that drew Cleveland into an AL Central tie in August 2019.
“I’m excited. I was trying to [hit] a home run in all the ballparks,” Santana said. “Great game for me and my teammates. Big win.”
It was especially big considering the injury-riddled state their roster is in as the first half concludes. Carlos Correa sat out because of a bruised right heel and Byron Buxton because of elbow soreness from his collision with the center-field wall Friday; Royce Lewis is on the injured list; and the stretched-thin Twins were forced to give catcher Christian Vázquez his first career start at third base.
But pitchers carried the Twins to victory anyway. Woods Richardson, for instance, battled through some long at-bats and gave up seven hits over 4⅔ innings, but the Giants scored only twice, on a two-out single by Mike Yastrzemski in the fourth inning, and a tying RBI single by Heliot Ramos in the fifth.
“They’re a good bat-to-ball team. They drag out [at-bats], spoiling pitches, making contact,” Woods Richardson said. “I just tried to manage that while giving my team the best chance to win.”
He did, and the Twins bullpen was nearly spotless behind him. Cole Sands faced four batters and recorded five outs. Jorge Alcala got three quick outs in the seventh, and despite giving up a two-out triple to Patrick Bailey that would have been a tying home run in any other major league park, Griffin Jax preserved the lead in the eighth.
An error by Yastrzemski on Matt Wallner’s RBI double and a passed ball by Bailey enabled the Twins to score twice in the fourth inning. San Francisco tied it up, setting up Santana’s big blast.
BOXSCORE: Twins 4, San Francisco 2
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The Twins managed to add an insurance run in the ninth, at the expense of Mahtomedi native Sean Hjelle, a Giants righthander. Hjelle, making his first career appearance against his home state’s team, opened the inning with three straight singles, loading the bases. With the infield pulled in, Jeffers hit a ground ball toward second baseman Thairo Estrada, who chose not to throw to the plate to prevent a run from scoring, but to turn a double play by throwing to second instead.
San Francisco was successful, but Vázquez scored to widen the lead to two, which Jhoan Duran protected with a 1-2-3 ninth, notching his 15th save in 16 chances while also hitting a season-best 103.9 mph with his fastball.
“It’s the Alcatraz effect,” Baldelli said. “We had a group go to Alcatraz [on the off day Thursday]. He came back throwing 103.9, that’s normal stuff. You go to Alcatraz, you come back throwing heat.”
