It had been 22 months since Ricky Nolasco pitched eight full innings in one game. But Joe Mauer could top that.
Mauer, who hadn't provided a walk-off victory since 2007, watched Tommy Kahnle's 97-miles-per-hour fastball drop below the strike zone for ball four in the 12th inning Friday, driving home the winning run in the Twins' 2-1 victory over the White Sox with a bases-loaded walk.
After Dan Jennings hit Eddie Rosario's jersey with a pitch and walked Byron Buxton, Kahnle relieved and walked Brian Dozier on five pitches. Robbie Grossman, second on the team in walks behind Mauer, was due up, but Molitor called him back. "I went with the résumé," he said, and Mauer lived up to it by taking a strike, then watching four pitches — two changeups and two fastballs — sail low. "He laid off a couple of changeups that would have enticed a lot of hitters when a guy's throwing that hard," Molitor said. "But Joe laid off them," and was rewarded with the second walk-off celebration of his career, and his first since July 15, 2007.
Nolasco didn't earn a win, though he deserved one. Three pitches into his outing, Nolasco had given up one run, but 97 pitches later, he had his longest start since Sept. 16, 2014, an eight-inning, three-hit, six-strikeout gem. After Adam Eaton's leadoff home run, the veteran righthander didn't even allow another White Sox hitter to reach third base
"I don't think he had his best stuff, per se. The competitiveness was there, though," Molitor said. "He changed his arm angle now and then, [and] he had a nice little slow curveball that was just tough for anybody to hit tonight. He just did a nice job."
But so did Jose Quintana. The Twins didn't put a runner on third base until the sixth, when they strung together four hits but managed only one run, on Kennys Vargas' line single to right, scoring Dozier to tie the score. Neither bullpen cracked until the 12th, when the Twins beat Chicago for only the second time in 10 games this season.
Not the record you want
Paul Molitor had a question before Friday's game: "Have we set a record yet?"
The Twins hadn't — yet. But a few hours later, when Eaton drilled a hanging slider from Nolasco into the seats above the out-of-town scoreboard in right field, they had. It was the 12th time this season that a Twins starting pitcher had allowed a home run to the first batter of a game — matching the 2004 Dodgers for the most in history. And it's happening a lot lately — five times in the past nine games, to be precise.
