PITTSBURGH – Jhoan Duran isn’t known as the most vocal player, but Manuel Margot called him the Twins’ motivator behind their seven-run outburst in the 10th inning Sunday, walking through the dugout after pitching a scoreless inning.
“He said: ‘Hey guys, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go! We need to win the game!” Margot said.
The Twins’ 22-inning scoreless drought that spanned 329 pitches came to an end in the first inning. It took extra innings to put a stop to their five-game losing streak.
Margot, after listening to Duran, opened the 10th inning with an opposite-field RBI triple, giving the Twins their first hit with a runner in scoring position in 13 chances. Carlos Santana and Carlos Correa added two-run hits in an 11-5 victory over the Pirates at PNC Park. The Twins ended their nine-game road trip through Houston, New York and Pittsburgh with a 3-6 record.
“It took a lot,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “These are the kind of games — a 3½-hour day game — looking around at the guys, they looked like they left a lot out on the field.”
The Twins, shut out in their previous two games, batted around in the 10th inning in just their second extra-inning game of the season. Ben Heller, the fifth reliever the Pirates used, issued a 10-pitch walk to Ryan Jeffers when it was still a one-run game, hit three batters and surrendered five hits in an ugly 46-pitch inning.
“We know who we are,” said Jeffers, who broke out of an 0-for-18 slump with a double in the second inning. “We have a lot of really good offensive players. We’re just going through some ups and downs. We put it together really well for a little while, and then we just don’t. ... I wish we could put a finger on it.”