If you’re a Minnesota Twins partisan, then you’d probably describe Tuesday night’s walk-off as “wild” or “exhilarating.” If, however, you’re a rooter of the Detroit Tigers, then you’d likely characterize it as “absurd” or even “soul-crushing.”
At this point, let’s roll tape as the Twins with one out in the bottom of the ninth turned a 4-3 deficit into a 5-4 walk-off triumph:
So this all starts when Miguel Sanó lined one of Robbie Grossman’s glove in right-center. The official scorer called it a single (it was 108 mph off the bat), but Grossman probably should’ve hauled it in. After that, the Tigers appeared to catch a break when Sanó rounded first base and made his way toward second. That forced the runner already on second, Gio Urshela, to break for third, which was already occupied by Trevor Larnach, who’d been given the stop sign.
At that point, Detroit catcher Eric Haase attempted to secure one of those gift outs available at third via rundown, but his throw to Jeimer Candelario sailed into the outfield and allowed the tying and game-winning runs to score in Larnach and Urshela, respectively. Haase, it should be noted, entered the game in the seventh inning as a pinch-hitter for starting catcher Tucker Barnhart. Compounding the miseries for Detroit is that a clutch three-run home run by Javier Baez in the eighth gave them the late lead.
The unlikely win pushed first-place Minnesota above the .500 mark for the first time since April 8 of last year. The Tigers, meantime, are now a season-worst four games below .500.
