SAN DIEGO – Sonny Gray played an important role, and Byron Buxton, too. Carlos Correa gave the Twins some room, and Jhoan Duran helped make it stand up.
But don't overlook the athletic — well, that's probably not the right word — contribution of a 63-year-old veteran of 34 MLB seasons in the Twins' 7-4 victory over the Padres on Saturday.
Crew chief Jerry Layne pivoted to his left in the seventh inning, took a small but urgent hop, and made the defensive play of the game for the Twins, knocking down Jurickson Profar's all-but-certain game-tying single.
"He was our player of the game today," Correa joked of the hot-smash-with-a-happy-ending. "Jerry, he got smoked. And he was hurting after. He was telling me how much he was hurting. But it was good to get that break."
Yes, after a week of things going disastrously wrong, the Twins were delighted to receive a bizarre stroke of good luck, helping them end a three-game losing streak and widen their AL Central lead to two games over the Guardians. The umpire's unintentional collision with the baseball ended the play, allowed Profar to take first base and, far more importantly, prevented speedy C.J. Abrams, under MLB rule 5.05(b)(4), from scoring from second base and tying the 2-1 game, as he surely would have.
Profar gestured in disbelief, and the Petco Park crowd booed vociferously. And it only got worse when Griffin Jax entered the game and struck out Manny Machado and retired Eric Hosmer on a pop-up to end the inning with the Twins still ahead.
"That's a play that's completely out of our control. Did it end up being meaningful play in the game? Yeah," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "Sometimes you can't get out of the way of the ball. I coached first base, and I know there are times where you're just going to have to wear it. The ball's coming quick."
The play may have done more than just snuff a Padres rally, at least as far as Correa was concerned.