Ryan Jeffers homered and finished with three hits, Max Kepler broke a ninth-inning tie with a sacrifice fly and the Minnesota Twins beat the Colorado Rockies 7-6 on Friday in Denver.
Michael A. Taylor hit a two-run shot and had two hits, Trevor Larnach also went deep and Kyle Farmer had two hits for Minnesota (86-74). The American League Central champion Twins won for the seventh time in nine games as they prepare for the playoffs.
Kody Funderburk (2-0) got the win with two scoreless innings of relief, and Emilio Pagan worked around a single in the ninth for his first save of the season.
Alan Trejo homered among his two hits while Brendan Rodgers and Elehuris Montero also hit home runs for Colorado (58-102), who have lost 10 of 12. Nolan Jones had three hits, and Charlie Blackmon and Sean Bouchard had two hits apiece.
In the ninth, Jeffers hit a leadoff single off Tyler Kinley (0-4), and Farmer’s base hit sent pinch runner Andrew Stephenson to third. After Willi Castro struck out, Kepler’s fly to center brought home the tiebreaking run.
Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the first off Ty Blach on Farmer’s two-out RBI single to right field.
Kepler led off the second with a single, and one out later Taylor homered to left to give the Twins a 3-0.
Montero opened the bottom of the second with a homer to make it 3-1, but Minnesota got the run back in the third. Jordan Luplow led off with a walk, went to third on a single by Jeffers and scored on Farmer’s double-play grounder to short to put Minnesota ahead 4-1.
Colorado got the run back in the bottom of the inning. Blackmon singled with one out, stole second, went to third on a groundout and scored on a single by Jones.
The Rockies went in front in the fourth against Joe Ryan when Elias Diaz doubled with one out, Bouchard walked and Trejo homered to left to make it 5-4.
Rodgers extended the lead in the fifth with a leadoff homer, but the Twins tied it in the seventh when Larnach and Jeffers hit back-to-back long balls off Gavin Hollowell.
Ryan gave up six runs on eight hits and a walk while striking out six in five innings.
Blach also exited after five innings, having allowed four runs on seven hits and two walks. He struck out four.
–Field Level Media