Twins postgame: Polanco misses a home run...then gets one

Jorge Polanco on Monday homered for the second straight game. This was one more interesting.

In the ninth inning, Polanco sent an Alex Wilson pitch drive down the right field line that hooked foul. But it was hit so high that Twins manager Paul Molitor though it might have cleared the pole before hooking.

"I'm not right down the line," he said, "but I thought it had the height maybe to get over the top of it. It was worth a look. I still think they are going to put cameras on those poles one day to kind of make it kind of more clear than they do."

The umpires checked replay and, after about 20 seconds, confirmed that the ball went foul. Back to action.

Polanco promptly blasted the next pitch over right field wall for his sixth homer of the season, giving the Twins a 6-1 lead.

"I've seen it on highlight shows where guys have come back and hit the next pitch for a homer," Molitor said. "That was the first time I've seen it live. It was a pretty good moment."

After hitting no homers in his first 32 games, Polanco has hit six in his past 33 games.

Sano has been absent from the lineup since Sept. 4, when he suffered a lower left leg contusion while sliding into second base. It's the same leg in which a titanium rod was inserted during the offseason, and he had to overcome the initial concern that he had re-injured the leg.

He's felt much better in recent days and has been going through full pre-game drills.

"He wanted to play [Monday]," Molitor said, "which is really good."

Etc.

• Tyler Austin took a nasty-looking tumble over the railing and into the camera bay in Kansas City on Sunday as he ran down a foul ball. He remained in the game and flied out to right in his next at-bat, but left the game afterward. He was just recovering from a sore back suffered in Houston when he fell backwards while trying to avoid the railing while in pursuit of a foul ball there. Molitor said Austin was available off the bench Monday.