Ryan Jeffers homered, tripled and drove in three runs and Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler also went deep as the Minnesota Twins cruised over the Los Angeles Angels 9-3 in the rubber game of their three-game series on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Matt Wallner had two hits and two runs and Trevor Larnach and Kepler also had two RBIs for American League Central champion Minnesota (83-73), which won for the fourth time in the last five games.
Joe Ryan (11-10), vying for a starting spot in the Twins’ playoff rotation, tied his career-high with 10 strikeouts while picking up his second win since July 21. He allowed three runs on seven hits over six innings and didn’t walk a batter.
Brandon Drury had a two-run double, Zach Neto went 2-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a run and Randal Grichuk had a double and scored twice for Los Angeles (70-86). The Angels, who open a three-game series with AL West-leading Texas on Monday in Anaheim, finished with a 35-46 road mark.
Carson Fulmer (0-1), making his first major league appearance since 2021 after making 12 starts at Triple-A Salt Lake, suffered the loss in relief of opener Andrew Wantz, allowing three runs on four hits over four innings. Fulmer walked one and struck out two.
Minnesota took a 1-0 lead in the second on a two-out single by Larnach, driving in Alex Kirilloff, who led off with a single and advanced to second on a walk to Wallner.
Los Angeles took a 2-1 lead in the third when Drury lined a double off the top of Larnach’s glove in left, driving in Grichuk and Neto.
The Twins tied it in the bottom of the third on Polanco’s 14th homer of the season, a 374-foot drive into the bleachers in right. The Angels then regained the lead in the fifth on back-to-back doubles by Grichuk and Neto to make it 3-2.
Minnesota bounced back to take a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the sixth. Wallner led off with a single and scored when Jeffers tripled off the top of the wall in right-center. Jeffers then scored on a groundout by Larnach.
The Twins then broke the game open when they batted around during a five-run seventh against reliever Jose Marte. Kepler started the scoring with a two-run homer, his team-leading 23rd of the season. One out later, Wallner doubled and scored on a single by Kyle Farmer. Jeffers then followed with his 12th homer of the season to left-center to end the scoring.
–Field Level Media