MINNEAPOLIS -- Two days ago, the Twins had yet to win a game all season in which they did not score at least four runs. Now, thanks to Joe Ryan, Trevor Larnach and especially Christian Vázquez, they have two.
Vázquez’s pickoff of Heliot Ramos at third base in the top of the eighth inning eliminated a major threat as the Twins held on to beat the Giants, 2-1, at Target Field on Saturday night. It was Minnesota's seventh straight win as it improved to 20-20, the first time it has been at .500 all year. Vázquez also scored the first Twins run thanks to a leadoff walk in the third inning, and he shepherded Ryan through six brilliant innings after the right-hander had been violently ill earlier in the week.
Twins starters have been excellent for almost the entire season. But too often earlier in the year, the team would squander a good by not scoring enough runs, or making defensive miscues, or having an ill-timed bullpen blowup. The past two days, Minnesota has brought home wins in those tight, low-scoring games -- thanks in large part to plays like the one Vázquez made.
"I was screaming,” said manager Rocco Baldelli, who was ejected earlier in the sixth inning for arguing balls and strikes. “My voice is kind of gone right now. I couldn't have been yelling any louder from the couch in here watching the game.”
The Twins had led since the third inning, but the Giants were threatening in the eighth thanks to a leadoff double from Ramos, who advanced to third on LaMonte Wade Jr.’s lineout to center. But on the first pitch from Cole Sands to Patrick Bailey, Vázquez saw an opportunity and came up firing. Royce Lewis made an outstanding tag on Ramos, and the threat was extinguished.
“Bailey, he doesn’t hit the fastball up,” Vázquez said. “So I call with Sands, ‘fastball up,’ and it was the perfect pitch to throw. It’s so easy -- fastball up. It was better with one out because I think they were trying to play the contact play there. So I know the momentum of Ramos was going to home plate. It was beautiful.”
It was the kind of play that earlier in the year, the Twins don’t make. Likewise for another sharp defensive play an inning later, when Jhoan Duran stabbed a hard chopper from Mike Yastrzemski and cleanly started a 1-6-3 double play that removed the Giants’ last baserunner. Minnesota played clean, effective baseball all night.
“You have to make plays,” Baldelli said. “The game doesn’t just always come to you. You have to take the game in hand and make good baseball plays. To win games like this, you have to do that, and I think we’ve doing that at a good level. Guys really all over the field have been making really good plays that are not just -- we’re not talking about routine stuff. We’re talking about going beyond that.”
Ryan was tremendous, allowing one run on two hits -- both to Ramos -- over his six innings. He struck out seven and did not walk a batter, with Ramos’ solo homer the only San Francisco run. Ryan was scratched from his scheduled start Thursday after suffering a nasty bout of a flu-like illness earlier in the week. He credited Vázquez for guiding him through on a night when he admittedly did not feel his best.
“He’s got such great energy, so much experience -- and experience in big situations,” Ryan said. “He knows the game better than anyone probably on the team, and I think that’s a really valuable asset to have back there, especially at that position.”
His opposite number, Logan Webb, was very nearly as good, striking out nine over seven strong innings. However, Webb allowed a two-run homer rather than a solo shot, and that was the difference in the game. Vázquez opened the third with a walk, and two batters later, Larnach deposited a ball into the seats in right field for the final margin.
“I think we're clicking,” Vázquez said. “Everybody. Pitching, and everybody's hitting in big moments, like Larnach today -- a two-run homer. Every night it's a different guy, and I think that's very important on a winning team."