Jordan Luplow's pinch-hit home run sends Twins over Rangers

ARLINGTON, TEXAS – Rocco Baldelli has utilized pinch hitters more often this season than ever before. It's difficult to argue with the results he's been getting.

Jordan Luplow made the move look brilliant on Friday, when the reserve outfielder subbed in for Matt Wallner and smashed a 2-2 fastball a half-dozen rows deep into the right field seats, scoring Carlos Correa ahead of him to turn a possible shutout into a lead, and ultimately a 5-1 victory over the Rangers at Globe Life Field.

"We'll pinch-hit and use every guy on our roster if we think it's going to help us win a game," Baldelli said after the Twins beat Texas for the fourth time in five meetings this year. "When you call upon guys, you like knowing that they're ready, they're prepared and all set to do their jobs. That's why we brought [Luplow] here."

Luplow's blast off Texas reliever Brock Burke was the fifth pinch-hit home run by a Twin this season, tying the Tigers for the most in the American League, and the last three of them have led directly to Twins wins. This time, Christian Vázquez followed Luplow's home run with one of his own, and Jorge Polanco connected off Josh Sborz an inning later, scoring Ryan Jeffers — pardon, pinch hitter Ryan Jeffers — ahead of him and turning what appeared to be Max Scherzer's potential no-hit bid into a comeback win over Texas.

"It's nice. It's good for the players, too," Baldelli said. "They prepare for these at-bats, they put a lot into it, and when you get the result, it kind of reaffirms some of the things you believe in."

Making the Twins' three-run seventh inning even more remarkable: Correa, Luplow and Vázquez were in a combined 1-for-55 tailspin before connecting in unison to win the game.

"Our hitting coaches have been grinding with myself in the cage, putting in the work to try to get me back to who I am," said Luplow, 0-for-15 when chosen to pinch-hit. "I had a rough week last week, but these guys were extremely helpful to getting me back to me."

Minnesota's five-game AL Central lead over the Guardians did not change, as Cleveland rallied to beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Scherzer, who started the Rangers' lone victory over the Twins last Saturday at Target Field, looked absolutely dominating for six innings, striking out seven and allowing only one hit. That fourth-inning single, on a hard ground ball by Royce Lewis that third baseman Ezequiel Duran knocked down but couldn't field cleanly, could arguably have been ruled an error.

The hit-or-error debate became moot, however, when Scherzer was lifted, leading 1-0, after throwing 88 pitches over six innings. He suggested some tightness in his arm was the reason, and the Twins were clearly happy to be rid of him.

And after Correa ended his 1-for-22 downturn with a single, Baldelli sent Luplow up for Wallner, hitting .161 against lefties.

The result was Luplow's third pinch-hit home run of his career and first as a Twin, and a sudden change that seemed to deflate the slumping Rangers, who have fallen to third place in the AL West by going 3-10 over the past two weeks.

"Pretty incredible ballgame. Some really good pitching on our end. Honestly, on their end, too," Baldelli said. "To go out there and just kind of grab the game, take the game over with a few pretty great at-bats, driving the ball hard the other way like that, what a great approach from our hitters."

It also made a winner, for only the second time since June 22, of Joe Ryan, who nearly matched Scherzer's dominance in his own six-inning start.

The righthander, who returned from the injured list by allowing only one run, on a solo homer, over five innings against the Rangers last Saturday, was even more effective in the rematch. Ryan struck out five batters the first time through Texas' lineup, four of them on swing-and-misses, and allowed only three hits.

One of them, however, was Corey Seager's 422-foot rocket to deep right field, a lone run that felt like it counted triple with Scherzer so commanding.

But the Twins, who suffered their own bullpen slip-ups against Cleveland last week, this time victimized the Rangers with five runs after Scherzer departed.

Jhoan Duran, whose errant pitch to Bo Naylor on Wednesday wound up as the critical moment of the Twins' loss to the Guardians, pitched the ninth on Friday and had little problem preserving the lead. Duran threw nine pitches, three of them topping 100 mph, to retire the Rangers' top three hitters — Marcus Semien, Seager and Nathaniel Lowe — in order, striking out Lowe to end the game.