SAN FRANCISCO – Two on the land is better than one in the sea.
That's the mathematics that the Twins utilized on Saturday, blasting two home runs that sailed into the AT&T Park bleachers to outscore the Giants' one home run that splashed into McCovey Cove. Kennys Vargas and Brian Dozier supplied the power, Jose Berrios handled the pitching and the Twins assured themselves of a winning road trip with a 3-2 victory over the Giants.
"I don't care where they land," Twins manager Paul Molitor said upon his arrival at this ballpark on the water, "as long as they clear the fence."
Vargas' blast did far more than that, actually. With the Twins trailing 1-0 in the fourth inning, the temporary Twin — his time on the roster might end Monday once Jorge Polanco returns from the bereavement list — made the case for finding a more permanent roster spot by crushing a 97-mph fastball from Jeff Samardzija 471 feet to the center field bleachers.
"That ball didn't have a lot of height. That's as impressive as they get," Molitor said of the Sano-esque blast. "People like to watch the majestic ones, but true baseball people would acknowledge that hitting a line drive that far is difficult to do."
An inning later, Dozier turned on a slider that hung inside and lined it into the left field seats, a two-run shot that gave him double-digit home runs for a fifth consecutive season. "He had one big at-bat," Molitor said. "I couldn't tell if it was a cutter or a slider, but he got enough of it."
It was also only the second home run of Dozier's last 15 to come with a runner on base — Chris Gimenez was standing on second base after a single and his first stolen base in two years. That extra run was important, because that was all the offense the Twins could generate in the California sunshine. Lately, in fact, though they are 6-3 on this trip, their batteries seem to run down midgame; they haven't scored after the sixth inning since last Friday.
"We're trying to find ways. I'm looking for ways to get creative, including letting Gimenez steal second," Molitor said of his team, which is batting .158 (12-for-76) in the last three innings over the past week.
That's where the bullpen comes in, and Tyler Duffey, Matt Belisle and Brandon Kintzler were perfect on Saturday, closing out the victory without allowing a hit over their 3 ⅔ innings.
Rookie righthander Berrios, meanwhile, limited San Francisco to six hits over 5 ⅓ innings, and only one of them was truly damaging and memorable: Brian Belt's first-inning missile that came down a few feet from a kayaker, beyond the scenic ballpark's right field wall, the 73rd "splash hit" by the Giants in the park's history.
That he didn't have his best stuff may actually be heartening for the Twins, because Berrios twice worked out of potential game-changing jams, the sort that used to swallow him up a year ago. The Giants loaded the bases on a Denard Span double and two one-out walks in the third inning, but Berrios struck out Brandon Crawford for the second out.
"I immediately went out to the mound. A lot of times young guys like that will let their guard down after a big out," Gimenez said. "I said, 'You've got a really big out still to get.' He threw a changeup for strike one, and then he breaking-balled him to death," getting Hunter Pence looking at a slider that curled over the plate.
Two innings later, after a run scored on a groundout, Berrios struck out the same two hitters to end the threat, this time making Pence look bad by flailing at the final strike. "He had a subpar day in terms of command and strike throwing," Molitor said, "but when he needed to make pitches there, he did a really nice job."
