The way Christian Vázquez was running the bases Sunday, there was some doubt, even as his fly ball cleared the left-field wall in the bottom of the ninth, whether he could navigate his way to home plate.
He almost got caught off first base after his second-inning single. He did get caught off first after his fourth-inning groundout. Those ignominious moments, a sixth-inning strikeout and a three-year slump led to him … hitting a walk-off home run off Josh Hader to give the Twins a 3-2 victory over Houston at Target Field.
Baseball is never required to make sense. On a day featuring Vázquez’s improbable star turn and Carlos Correa making the All-Star team, the Twins provided reminders that a good baseball team, like a good hitter’s swing, is a fluid fusion of disparate parts:
* In his first four games in the big leagues, Brooks Lee hit .474 with a double and a home run and made difficult plays at third base and shortstop.
His batting stance looks like an homage to the dead-ball era. He stands crouched and balanced, with his bat near his ear.
His swing is remindful of the first time A.J. Pierzynski saw Joe Mauer take batting practice. ``He’s doing everything we all try to do,” Pierzynski said, “but can’t.”
“Sometimes I get too stagnant, and I try to move a little more,” Lee said. “But I really try to be quiet, with my hands and my body.”
