Jorge Polanco lined a three-run home run with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Minnesota Twins a wild 12-9 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis.
It was the first career walk-off homer for Polanco, who finished 3-for-6 with five RBIs. Polanco hit a 3-2 sinker from Tigers reliever Derek Holland (1-2) 395 feet into the left field bleachers for his 12th homer of the season. He drove in Trevor Larnach, who began the inning as the designated runner, and Nelson Cruz, who had been intentionally walked.
Max Kepler went 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs and Alex Kirilloff had two hits and two RBIs for Minnesota, which completed a four-game series sweep of the Tigers. Josh Donaldson doubled and scored twice and Cruz added a single, three walks and three runs for the Twins. Tyler Duffey (1-2) picked up the win.
Jake Rogers hit a grand slam, Akil Baddoo homered and drove in three runs and Jonathan Schoop had two hits and two RBIs for Detroit.
Detroit took a 9-8 lead in the top of the ninth when Rogers hit a grand slam home run off Twins closer Taylor Rogers. The Twins tied it 9-9 when catcher Ben Rortvedt homered off Holland for the second home run of his career, a 410-foot drive to right, forcing extra innings.
Twins starter Jose Berrios no-hit Detroit for 4 2/3 innings but then allowed five consecutive Tigers to reach base in a four-run fifth. Harold Castro lined a single to center to break up the no-hitter and Berrios then issued walks to the bottom two batters in the order, Zack Short and Rogers, to load the bases. Baddoo and Schoop both followed with two-run singles.
Kepler’s 10th homer of the season cut it to 4-1 in the bottom of the fifth and snapped a 14-inning scoreless streak by Tigers starter Wily Peralta.
The Twins cut it to 4-2 in the sixth on an RBI single by Polanco, then parlayed three singles, three walks and a wild pitch into four runs and a 6-4 lead in the seventh.
The first run came in on a bases-loaded wild pitch by Gregory Soto. Kirilloff singled in Donaldson to tie it, Polanco followed with a line single to center to give Minnesota a 5-4 lead, and Kepler then singled to right to drive in Kirilloff.
The Tigers cut it to 6-5 in the eighth on Baddoo’s sixth home run of the season off reliever Jorge Alcala. But the Twins answered in the bottom of the eighth with Donaldson’s RBI double off the bottom of the fence in center, and an RBI infield single by Kirilloff that drove in Donaldson from second.
–Field Level Media