Minnesota Twins’ winning streak reaches eight with 10-inning victory and sweep of San Francisco Giants

DaShawn Keirsey Jr. was soaking wet as he walked over to the cheering fans, the byproduct of being doused by teammates during the Twins’ celebration of his winning hit Sunday. But his mom didn’t care.

“She gave me a big hug. I’m like, ‘I’m all wet, but OK,’ “ Keirsey said after lining a two-out, opposite-field single down the left-field line in the 10th inning to deliver the Twins’ eighth victory in a row, 7-6 over the San Francisco Giants. Having his mother, Angela, here from San Diego to watch him collect his first RBI of the season, a walk-off winner, “was awesome! That was the first thing in my mind, like: ‘Oh, that’s so cool! … Happy Mother’s Day!’ “

It was a blast for his teammates, too, who completed only the second sweep ever of a six-games-or-more Target Field homestand, matching their April 2022 blitz of the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers. The Twins have won nine consecutive home games, also matching that 2022 streak and a 2010 spree as their longest ever in this park.

And mostly, the Twins were thrilled for Keirsey, a popular teammate who mostly serves as a pinch runner and defensive replacement but rarely lacks a broad grin on his face. Keirsey was 2-for-30 (.067) on the season without an RBI before his winning hit.

“He’s at the top of the list. He’s a guy who takes every opportunity that he’s given and is like, ‘I’m going to go get it,’ “ righthander Pablo López said. “I was just so happy for him. No matter the opportunity, he’ll rise to it. He’ll rise to the occasion.”

There was a lot of that for the Twins on Sunday, considering López wasn’t as sharp as he has been lately. He gave up four runs over six innings, including Heliot Ramos’ two-run, opposite-field blast, the first home run López has surrendered since April 2.

But the Twins kept fighting back, scoring two runs on Brooks Lee‘s home run, another on Byron Buxton‘s sacrifice fly to score Kody Clemens, and another on — well, just about the most improbable scenario possible, statistically.

That came with the Twins trailing 4-3 in the sixth inning, when Royce Lewis batted with the bases loaded.

In other words, the worst bases-loaded team in the majors (one hit in 20 chances since April 1) had, yep, put runners on every base, and the batter was a guy whose last hit came, oh, almost eight months ago.

So let’s allow Lewis to quote Charlie Brown: Tell your statistics to shut up.

“I feel really good. I’ve been making adjustments, even though I’m not freaking out about” his long hitless streak, Lewis said. “It kind of works itself out.”

It sure did. Lewis swung and missed at a changeup, but after taking a ball, he stroked a 101-mph line drive to center field. That not only tied the score and set up Harrison Bader‘s go-ahead RBI on a slow grounder that the Giants couldn’t turn into a double play — it also ended Lewis’ 0-for-36 slump dating back to last year, the third-longest ever by a Twins position player.

“Timing is hard. I just had six weeks off [because of a hamstring injury], I come back in and am facing these dudes that have crazy 18 inches of movement one way, 20 the other way,” Lewis said. “It’s 97 [mph] then 76 — it’s a big timing difference. It was great for me, man. I’ll definitely take advantage of those at-bats and keep moving forward.”

The Giants tied the score again when Griffin Jax surrendered three singles in the eighth inning, with Ramos’ second hit of the day (and sixth in eight official at-bats in the series) driving in Willy Adames. But Jax got out of the inning, leaving the bases loaded.

BOXSCORE: Twins 7, San Francisco 6 (10)

MLB standings

Then San Francisco took the lead off Jhoan Duran in the 10th when David Villar’s slow roller to Lewis at third brought home automatic runner Jung Hoo Lee.

“Perfectly placed — there’s nothing you can do,” Lewis said. “I thought about shoveling it [to catcher Ryan Jeffers], but the guy was already sliding.”

But all that merely set up one of the biggest moments of Keirsey’s young career. Lee led off with a single, and Jeffers drove in the tying run when Matt Chapman bobbled his grounder to third, scoring Ty France. Three batters later with Lee on third, up came the rookie.

Down went the Giants.

“It means the world to me. I’m so glad he got it,” Lewis said. “This guy works so hard. He does a lot for us, and it was just so awesome for him to get that. I was praying for him to get it.”