It's a baseball truism rooted in common sense. Never make the third out of an inning at third base, the tradition goes, because you're just as likely to score from second base on a two-out hit.
Luis Arraez has a big day at the plate as Twins topple Cleveland 8-7
The left fielder hit two three-baggers and passed on a shot at another.
June 26, 2021 at 2:58AM
So it was perfectly reasonable and understandable that Luis Arraez, having just restored the Twins' lead in a back-and-forth game with a two-out liner that bounced off the bullpen wall, slowed up as he approached second base Friday night.
But it sure would have been fun, wouldn't it, if Arraez had kept tearing around the bases and tried for third?
Alas, Arraez settled for a double to go with the two triples he had already slugged, and the Twins beat Cleveland in entertaining fashion, 8-7 at Target Field.
Cleveland hit four home runs, took the lead twice and allowed the Twins to rally three times. Alex Kirilloff crushed the first opposite-field home run of his career, Max Kepler threw out the potential tying run at second base in the ninth, and the Twins won a game using nothing but relief pitchers. There were even fireworks afterward.
"The way we kind of just kept going offensive was very nice," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "We had to make some plays and score some runs and get some things done. We forced the action and got a nice win out of it."
In the center of it all, though, was Arraez.
With the help of some shaky outfield defense — one hard line drive missed by right fielder Josh Naylor, another one inadvertently kicked by left fielder Harold Ramirez — Arraez made himself the 26th Twins player to triple twice in a game, the first since Ehire Adrianza four seasons ago, and drove in three runs to help Minnesota end its two-game losing streak.
He even looked … fast?
"He might be," speedy teammate Nick Gordon said. "I don't have no triples."
By playing smart baseball, though, Arraez missed becoming only the fourth major leaguer in the past quarter-century, and just the third Twin ever, to triple three times in a game. As the first two games of this series have reminded Minnesota, the Twins not long ago possessed a left fielder who occasionally would eschew the safe play for the showy, the brainy play for the breathtaking.
And by coincidence, that former outfielder, Eddie Rosario, helped build the lead on Friday that his sort-of successor, Arraez, helped erase.
One night after driving in the go-ahead runs in the eighth inning to beat his old team, Rosario broke a 5-5 tie with a fifth-inning home run into the last row of seats down the right-field line, a ball that traveled 374 feet in distance and what seemed like an equal number in height.
But the lead lasted only a half-inning, until a two-out single by Nelson Cruz tied the score. That set up one final Rosario-esque moment an inning later by Arraez, who had already thrilled the Target Field crowd with a sliding catch as he crossed the foul line, and two three-base hits, scoring each time.
He didn't wait, slamming a first-pitch changeup from reliever Nick Wittgren off the bullpen fence, sending Gordon and Simmons home with what turned out to be the critical runs and registering one final coulda-been triple — OK, a clutch two-out, stand-up double.
"It feels like he's on base all the time," Baldelli said. "He hasn't even probably gotten hot, and he's still on base all the time."
He also provided the key support for the Twins' relief corps, five members of whom finished out the bullpen-game victory. Danny Coulombe started and gave up three runs, and Griffin Jax pitched the longest, 4⅓ innings, to earn his first major league victory.
"A personal milestone is always really cool," Jax said. "It's something I'll cherish all my life."
Gerrit Cole gave up his opt-out right on Monday and will remain with the New York Yankees under a contract that runs through 2028 rather than become a free agent.
