Brooks Lee gave Minnesota its second walk-off win in as many days as his ninth-inning RBI single lifted the Twins to a 5-4 comeback victory over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday in Minneapolis.
Lee’s second three-hit game of the season ended with a two-out, slow-roller up the middle off Steven Cruz and allowed Carlos Correa to score from third.
Harrison Bader hit his fifth home run of the season and Kody Clemens got his fourth to lead Minnesota’s comeback. The Twins had lost their previous 39 games when trailing by four or more runs.
Vinnie Pasquantino had his third three-hit game of the season for the Royals, going 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored. Salvador Perez went 2-for-4 and drove in a run while Maikel Garcia extended his hitting streak to nine games with a single and two RBIs.
However, the Royals also struck out a season-high 18 times.
Zebby Matthews struck out a career-high nine batters for the Twins. However, the 25-year-old righty making his second start of the season lasted only four innings as he needed 58 pitches to labor through the second and third innings. He gave up two runs on five hits and a walk.
Pasquantino and Perez teamed up to double the Royals lead in the fifth off Justin Topa, giving Kansas City a 4-0 advantage.
Michael Wacha needed just 37 pitches to get through his first four innings for the Royals, but Bader took his first pitch of the fifth to the left-field seats to make it a three-run game. That started a three-run fifth to get the Twins back in the game, capped by Ty France’s two-out, two-run single to right.
The Royals’ starter left after Clemens led off the sixth with a home run. Waching gave up seven hits and a walk with a strikeout in five-plus innings.
It stayed that way until the ninth, when Correa drew a leadoff pinch-hit walk off Daniel Lynch IV (3-1). Pinch-hitter Ryan Jeffers got a one-out walk off Lynch, who was replaced by Cruz. while Cruz induced a groundout on a comebacker, his brief bobble of the ball prevented the Royals from getting a double play.
That set the stage for Lee’s heroics, which earned Johan Duran (3-0) the victory after recording a scoreless ninth.
