Minnesota Twins high San Francisco Giants 4-2 as Carlos Santana delivers tiebreaking homer
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 his 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 decisive blow in the Twins’ 4-2 victory.
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, 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.
It was just as big to the Twins here and now, though, considering the injury-riddled state their roster is in as the first half concludes. Carlos Correa sat out with a bruised right heel, Byron Buxton with assorted soreness from his collision with the center-field wall Friday night, 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 an RBI single by Heloit Ramos in the fifth.
Ramos was Woods Richardson’s last batter, but from there, the Twins’ bullpen was nearly spotless. Cole Sands ended that threat by forcing Patrick Bailey into a double-play grounder, then got three quick outs in the sixth. Jorge Alcala did the same in the seventh, and despite allowing a two-out triple, Griffin Jax preserved the lead in the eighth.
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 hard ground ball at 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.
He 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 this year.
BOXSCORE: Twins 4, San Francisco 2
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A couple of Gigantic mistakes in the fourth inning also handed the Twins a pair of runs. Ryan Jeffers was hit by a pitch from the Giants’ rookie righthander, Hayden Birdsong, then tagged up and advanced when Brooks Lee flew out in the left-field corner.
Matt Wallner followed by hooking a double toward the right-field corner, scoring Jeffers, and when Yastrzemski dropped the ball while preparing to throw, Wallner reached third base. That was important because, with two outs, Bailey let a Birdsong pitch pop out of his glove and back to the screen, allowing Wallner to score.
All of which set up Santana’s big blast — even though it took a while. Rogers, an All-Star for the Twins in 2021, fell behind Santana 3-1 before leaving a 79.7-mph sweeper belt-high and inside.
Santana lifted the ball high in the air, and it seemed to come down in foul territory — but only just barely, and only after passing the foul pole in fair territory, third-base umpire Todd Tichenor ruled. The Giants protested and the video was reviewed by umpires in New York. The review took more than a minute, as fans in the park watched replays on the scoreboard and grew more convinced the call would be overturned. They booed heartily when it wasn’t, as Santana celebrated in the dugout with the Prince-themed cloak and fedora.
