DaShawn Keirsey Jr. singled home the winning run in the 10th inning on Sunday as the Minnesota Twins beat the San Francisco Giants 7-6, extending their winning streak to eight games.
"I think playing against those teams right now is elevating our our group as a whole," says Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. "And it's not just one side of the ball or the other, it forces you to play well if you wanna win. And our guys wanna win right now. They like the feeling, they like what's going on in there. There's no way to fabricate it - it's not artificial. It happens by going out there, working hard, being prepared and then playing good when the lights come on. And our guys are playing real good."
The Giants scored a run off Jhoan Duran (1-0) in the top of the 10th, but in the bottom half automatic runner Ty France moved to third on Brooks Lee's single and scored on Ryan Jeffers' ground out. After an intentional walk and a groundout, Keirsey lashed a line drive down the left field line against Ryan Walker (1-2) to complete a 6-0 homestand for the Twins.
"Made a lot of good plays, pitched good, ran the bases good, swung the bats good, tightened it up at the plate when we needed to in certain situations," Baldelli said about the win. "You talk about having a lot of fight in you and just toughness in you. I think that's coming out in a lot of our guys right now and it's showing with the results."
Heliot Ramos had a home run and four RBIs for the Giants, while Lee homered and had three hits for Minnesota.
Twins starter Pablo López gave up four runs on five hits over six innings and left with the lead. But the Giants strung together three singles off Griffin Jax in the eighth to tie the score 5-5.
"Even when the results that I was looking for were not the ones happening, it's just like, OK, what can I do right now that will help the team? If that was minimizing damage, if that was keeping the score as close as it was, to let the offense do their thing, then that's what I was given today and that's that's what I wanted to do," Lopez explained after the game.
Giants manager Bob Melvin was ejected in the ninth inning for arguing a checked swing call.
The Twins now hit the road for six after back-to-back sweeps at Target Field.
"It was a heck of a homestand, as enjoyable of a home stand," Baldelli says. "I mean, what else do you want from a team? You certainly don't (want) any more wins because we're playing good, winning baseball."
Key moment
Jax walked Wilmer Flores to load the bases with two outs in the eighth. He then fell behind pinch-hitter Patrick Bailey 3-0 before coming back to retire him on a full-count grounder to short, keeping the game tied.
Key stat
Royce Lewis snapped an 0-for-36 streak with an RBI single that tied the game 4-4 in the sixth. He finished last season hitless in his last 21 at-bats and hadn't registered a hit in his first five games this year after coming off the injured list on May 6.
Up next
The Twins open a three-game series in Baltimore on Tuesday with RHP Simeon Woods Richardson (2-2, 4.01) on the mound.