Twins 4, Giants 2: Minnesota's kids rally late to close out the road season
A seventh-inning error cracked the door open at Oracle Park, and Walker Jenkins and the Twins' youth movement walked straight through it.
Neither of these teams will play October baseball, but Wednesday's finale in San Francisco still meant something: it was the last road game of the Twins' season, and the runs were driven in almost entirely by the players Minnesota hopes will define the next one.
How it unfolded
Luke Keaschall opened the scoring in the third with a solo home run, his 10th of the season, according to MLB.com's game story. The Giants answered in the fourth when Shay Whitcomb, who finished 2-for-4, lined a two-run single for a 2-1 lead. Keaschall tied it with a sacrifice fly in the fifth, and the game sat there until the seventh.
That's when it turned. With runners on, Giants shortstop Christian Koss threw the ball away trying to start a double play, and pinch-hitter Walker Jenkins made San Francisco pay with the go-ahead RBI single. Josh Bell followed with an RBI single of his own to make it 4-2, and Andrew Morris closed it out for his fifth save.
The starters matched each other almost exactly: Minnesota's Connor Prielipp and San Francisco's Cesar Perdomo each went 5⅓ innings and allowed two runs.
Why it matters
The Twins went 4-3 on the trip to wrap up their road schedule, and Jenkins was the story of it: per MLB.com, the rookie piled up 12 hits, 3 home runs, 4 RBIs and 6 runs over the seven games while striking out just once. The Star Tribune framed the series win the same way — the young players delivered it.
For the Giants, sitting fourth in the NL West at 65-95, the loss was one more in a season full of them. All that's left is a home series against the division-champion Dodgers, who arrive Friday having run away with the West.