A little more than eight hours after the Twins started their Father’s Day doubleheader Sunday, after two home runs from Carlos Correa in Game 1 and a first-inning homer from Royce Lewis in both games, the Twins completed their sweep over the Oakland Athletics with an 8-7 win.
Twins complete doubleheader, series sweep of Athletics behind plenty of power
Royce Lewis hit a first-inning home run in each game, Carlos Correa went deep twice in Game 1 and Jose Miranda broke an eighth-inning tie with a homer in Game 2.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
June 17, 2024 at 1:31PM
It was one of those days that required players to step up from all parts of the roster. Jose Miranda hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning, crushing a first-pitch slider to the second deck in left field after he started the game on the bench. Austin Martin stole a home run, reaching over the center-field wall, and hit an RBI double in the next inning. Louie Varland, called up as the 27th man, allowed two runs in 4⅓ innings out of the bullpen.
The result, after a 6-2 victory in the afternoon, was the Twins’ first four-game series sweep of Oakland since 2007. The Twins have won seven of their last eight games.
“The guys brought really good energy the entire day and the production, who knows which one comes first, but the production matched the energy,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “There were a ton of great at-bats. There were a ton of great pitching performances. There was a lot of good baseball.”
Correa and Lewis set the tone for the lineup. They hit back-to-back homers in the first inning of Game 1, and Correa followed with another homer in the fourth inning to cement his status as one of the hottest hitters in the majors. It was the 12th multihomer game of his career.
Lewis, in Game 2, crushed a two-run homer to left field, one pitch after he hooked a potential home run a few feet foul. He has a team-record seven homers in his first 12 games of the season.
“He’s the legend,” Manuel Margot said. “He looks like Barry Bonds right now.”
As much as Correa and Lewis are driving the offense, Baldelli called it a “relentless” offense. They’ve tallied 73 hits in their last five games, the most hits by a Twins team in a five-game span since 2010.
Carlos Santana, the Twins’ oldest player at 38, stood near the bat rack midway through the first game of the doubleheader and lobbied Baldelli to put him in the lineup for the second game. He hit a two-run homer in his last at-bat in the first game, then hit a hustle double in the third inning of the nightcap.
“He just wants to play, man,” Baldelli said. “He loves to play baseball. There are a lot of guys that the game means a lot to him. You cannot take this guy off the field. He will play every single day. His body holds up great. He takes cares of himself. His whole day — life, really, for the last 20 years — has revolved around giving himself the chance to go out there and go play successfully and he’s still doing it.
“We don’t want to have any soft spots anywhere, and we don’t right now. We’re pretty thick in the lineup. The guys are doing their jobs when they go on the field.”
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Many Twins players celebrated Father’s Day between games in the doubleheader. Reliever Jay Jackson sat at his locker feeding his 11-month-old son a bottle. Correa’s oldest son, Kylo, politely asked Lewis if he could have eye black painted on his face. Jhoan Duran played with his kids in a hallway outside the clubhouse.
When players were asked how they kept their energy up throughout the day — Griffin Jax struck out the last out in Game 2 more than eight hours after they started the day — Martin said they’re professionals. Kyle Farmer joked it was the pizza they ate between games.
“These types of days in our sport, they’re pretty unique,” Baldelli said.
Whatever it took. In Game 2, there were a lot of swings during the second inning. Martin gave the Twins arguably their best defensive play of the season, robbing a two-run homer from Oakland catcher Shea Langeliers. Martin tracked the ball to the wall in left-center field, leapt and reached his arm over the 8-foot-tall fence, snagging the ball as it was set to drop in Oakland’s bullpen.
Martin briefly fell to the ground after colliding with the wall, and Tyler Soderstrom smartly advanced to third after tagging up at first base, but the reactions in the bullpen told the story. Three A’s relievers all put their hands on their heads, two of them spinning around in disbelief. Varland jumped out of his chair in the bullpen and raised his arms.
“I was surprised!” Martin admitted. “I felt it go in my glove, but my whole arm kind of went over, so I didn’t know what I would be bringing back. I didn’t expect to bring back a baseball, so when I looked and I had it, I was like, ‘Dang, that’s not bad.’ "
After the stunning catch, the A’s took a 3-2 lead. Chris Paddack walked the next batter, then surrendered an RBI double to Seth Brown, which Martin bobbled for a run-scoring error. With two outs, Zack Gelof lined an RBI double in the left-center gap.
Paddack, who gave up two solo homers in the third inning, was pulled after 2⅓ innings, the first time he’s failed to pitch at least four innings in a start this season.
Trevor Larnach pulled the Twins ahead in the bottom of the second inning with a three-run homer. The Twins never trailed again.
“I feel like in this game you can’t take anything for granted,” Miranda said. “For me, last year was a really hard year. It made me keep working harder and preparing myself for this year, especially for moments like this. It feels awesome to have moments like this.”
The eight Twins headed for arbitration are Royce Lewis, Joe Ryan, Jhoan Duran, Bailey Ober, Ryan Jeffers, Willi Castro, Griffin Jax and Trevor Larnach.
