In a game the Twins won 17-9 over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday, producing their highest run total of the season and their most hits in a game in seven seasons, they needed an eighth-inning rally to clinch the victory.
Twins closer Jhoan Duran pitched in the eighth inning, entering with the bases loaded and the tying run at first base. Duran escaped the jam with a double play and a flyout to preserve a two-run lead. The response from the Twins offense: Eight straight batters reached base in a seven-run eighth inning.
“What a performance by the offense — [24] hits,” Twins starting pitcher Pablo López said. “Pitching wasn’t as dominant as we want it to be, but days like today, you need an offense like that to remind you we’re a team. They’re going to pick us up.”
Rain started falling at Target Field in the seventh inning, causing a 37-minute delay. A flood of Twins hits came earlier.
They clobbered Rockies lefthanded starter Austin Gomber into his worst start of the season, beginning with a five-run first inning. Eight Twins players recorded multiple hits. Carlos Correa had the first five-hit game in his 10-year career, and Christian Vázquez called him Ichiro afterward.
The hardest-hit ball? A Manuel Margot double that left his bat at 111 mph.
The longest hit? A 430-foot solo homer from Willi Castro to lead off the fourth inning.
The hit that prompted a player to do the Griddy? Royce Lewis clubbed a two-run homer to the second deck in left field in the sixth inning, his fifth homer in nine games, then danced in the dugout.