CLEVELAND – Waiting for a call about a baby, too, expectant father Brent Rooker celebrated his daughter's coming arrival with a seventh-inning home run that was the creamy middle to a 3-0 victory over Cleveland on Tuesday night at Progressive Field.
Brent Rooker's home run helps Twins shut out Cleveland 3-0
Father-to-be Brent Rooker's seventh-inning home run put a exclamation point on the Twins' victory Tuesday night.
September 8, 2021 at 4:34AM
His skipper, Rocco Baldelli, and Baldelli's wife, Allie, welcomed their first child in Tuesday's wee hours.
Like Baldelli watching the clock Sunday at Tampa Bay, Rooker is awaiting a call home.
Leading off the seventh, Rooker hammered a first pitch left up in the hitting zone 421 feet into right center field that gave him — and his teammates — cause for early celebration.
It came two innings after shortstop Andrelton Simmons' single drove in Max Kepler for the game's first run that snapped a scoreless pitching duel between Cleveland starter Aaron Civale, in his first start since June 21 because of a finger injury, and the Twins' John Gant.
Designated hitter Luis Arraez's triple scored Simmons for a ninth-inning insurance run they didn't need. They didn't need it because Gant escaped a sticky third inning — thanks to Byron Buxton's grand slam-stealing glove work — and pitched five innings before Jorge Alcala, Juan Minaya, Caleb Thielbar and Alexander Colome each pitched a scoreless inning.
When it was all over and the Twins had won their third consecutive game, it was a good day for expectant fathers.
"Yeah, isn't that something?" Twins acting manager Bill Evers asked afterward.
Rooker's boss welcomed daughter Louisa Sunny in the early hours of Tuesday morning back in Minneapolis.
Like Baldelli on Sunday, Rooker on Tuesday was awaiting a call to return to Minnesota for his child's birth. It hasn't yet come, so he went to work as usual.
"It's an exciting time for me and my wife," Rooker said. "We're looking forward to our little girl being born. We've got a plan, so it gives me the freedom to go out and play and not have to worry about much and be stressed out too much, which is nice."
Rooker's seventh home run this season came in a game when Cleveland's franchise-record streak of a home run in consecutive games ended at 20.
That only happened after Gant escaped that third inning when he loaded the bases with two outs by allowing two singles and a walk. He battled Cleveland DH Franmil Reyes for five pitches before Reyes hit a ball to deep left-center field.
Buxton drifted back, leapt and nabbed the ball at the fence to deny a local car dealership's promotion that awards a fan with a new SUV if a Cleveland player hits a grand slam in the bottom of the third.
Reyes came mere feet from doing so.
"Oh, man, super important," Gant said after getting the win. "It made the whole game. If that ball goes out of the yard, that's four runs. ... I believe it was their little grand-slam inning or whatever they call it. It was nice not to give that one up."
For a moment, Gant was uncertain.
"I didn't think he got it full-on, but he's a big ol' boy, you know what I'm saying" Gant said. "He doesn't have to get it full-on for it to go. I didn't really know what was going to happen."
Buxton's catch allowed everybody the chance to breathe again. Rooker had a great view from left field.
"When [Reyes] hit it, obviously he hit it decent," Rooker said. "I could tell it got on him a little bit, so I didn't think it was going to leave — and anything toward center field that doesn't leave the yard, Buck has a pretty good chance to get."
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