The Minnesota Twins should collectively pool their money and buy some lottery tickets this week, because everything is turning up their way. On Sunday, the Twins beat the Chicago White Sox on a walk-off, three-run homer from Byron Buxton that traveled 470-feet. After a day off on Monday, the Twins started a series against another AL Central rival in the Detroit Tigers and again somehow pulled off an even more absurd blend of late-game magic to steal another win.
Twins’ walk-off win after terrible Tigers defense is the wildest play of MLB season so far
The Twins scored the game-tying and game-winning runs on a chaotic final sequence against the Tigers.
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Miguel Sano stepped to the plate with two on and one out in the bottom of the ninth inning with Minnesota trailing by a run. Sano lined a shot into right field that bounced off the glove of Robbie Grossman and trickled to the outfield wall. Minnesota’s lead runner stopped at third and Sano pushed for second after the misplayed ball, which left teammate Gio Urshela in an uncomfortable position. But just when the base-running mistake was set to doom the Twins’ night, Tigers catcher Eric Haase threw the ball into the outfield and allowed both the tying run and go-ahead run to score.
Watch the play here.
The tweet here is referring to the Minnesota Timberwolves’ heartbreaking Game 5 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Ja Morant’s buzzer-beater. No, this one didn’t have the same stakes in the first month of the MLB season, but it was a meaningful win the standings.
The Twins have now won five straight games and suddenly sit on top of the AL Central at 9-8 overall. The division favorite White Sox have lost eight games in a row at the same time and now hold the worst run differential in the AL at -24.
The Tigers were only credited with one error (to Haase) on the final sequence, but that really should have been the second out to the right fielder. What a way to lose for Detroit.
The Twins underachieved last year after two straight seasons of playing at least .600 ball, but after adding Carlos Correa over the offseason, Minnesota might be back to AL contender status. At least that will be the case if they keep catching breaks like this.
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