Twins bash 17 hits in 16-5 victory over Angels, their sixth in a row

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Those ugly batting averages on the scoreboard won’t change overnight, but Carlos Santana and Kyle Farmer showed their impact at the bottom of the Twins lineup Saturday.

Santana homered for the third consecutive game, scored three times and drove in four runs. Farmer, hitting behind Santana in the lineup, reached base four times, scored twice and drove in two runs as the Twins had their biggest offensive outburst of the season in a 16-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

The Twins totaled a season-high 17 hits and won their sixth straight game, their longest winning streak since April 2022. They improved their record to 13-13 in their roller coaster start to the season.

“I think that’s six in a row, but who is counting?” Twins pitcher Chris Paddack said. “The biggest thing is coming in with the same attitude as a group. We know what we’re capable of.”

Last weekend, the Twins were searching for answers offensively. Some hitters went directly to the batting cages after games. During their winning streak, they have scored at least five runs in every game.

When the Twins led by two runs in the third inning, Santana stepped into the batter’s box with two runners on base and none out. He turned a two-strike fastball into an RBI double when Angels right fielder Jo Adell misplayed a ball that was one step out of his reach as he raced forward, and the ball bounced past him.

Next up was Farmer, who was hitless in his last 16 at-bats. Farmer belted a two-run double to left field, giving his teammates a thumbs up after he arrived at second base. It was Farmer’s second extra-base hit this year, and he doubled his season’s RBI total in one swing.

“It’s a huge relief,” Farmer said. “It’s nice to finally get a hit off a lefty, what I’m meant to do here. I felt the same at the plate, it just fell my way.”

Willi Castro extended the fourth inning with a two-out, two-strike single. Santana followed with a three-run homer, pulling a fastball over the right-field wall to end an eight-pitch at-bat for a 10-4 lead. It’s the fifth time Santana homered in three straight games in his career, but this is the first time since 2019.

From there, the Twins couldn’t stop hitting. Max Kepler hit a solo homer in the sixth inning. Edouard Julien delivered a two-run double off the center field wall in the seventh inning.

Scoring three runs in four separate innings, all nine Twins starters tallied at least one hit and they all scored a run. Ryan Jeffers, who reached base four times, was the last starter to score when he drilled a two-run homer off ex-Twin Aaron Hicks in the ninth inning.

BOXSCORE: Twins 16, Angels 5

“When you look up at the scoreboard and it says 3, 3, 3, 3, I’m like, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that before,” Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Certainly, not very often. It just meant that we did a good job being relentless in the way we approached our at-bats.”

The Twins started the night by loading the bases without recording an out against hard-throwing Angels starter José Soriano, which included a walk and a hit batsman. It turned into only one run. Kepler drew a bases-loaded walk on a borderline pitch and Castro grounded into an inning-ending double play.

With Royce Lewis, Mr. Grand Slam, on the injured list since Opening Day, the Twins are 1-for-19 with seven strikeouts when hitting with the bases loaded.

The Twins, however, hit quite well in every other situation, scoring in seven of the nine innings. They pushed Soriano out of the game during a three-run second inning, back-to-back singles from Julien and Jeffers serving as the knockout blow.

“I’m about as happy as I can be watching our team go out there and swing the bats like that,” Baldelli said. “I mean we brought the bats today, period. It’s got to leave you with a good feeling. We’ve been swinging it good and this was just taking it to a little bit of a different level.”