No telling if the face-to-face rancor helped. Who knows if the finger-in-the-face pointing changed anything. The hat-throwing, it's impossible to connect that with the clutch run-scoring.
But Rocco Baldelli on Wednesday tried a little fight-the-power passion, and the Twins finally beat the Red Sox. Related or not, both seemed to fire up a Target Field crowd that has watched plenty of frustrating losses lately.
In fact, the crowd of 23,912 shared Baldelli's in-your-face sentiment in the 10th inning, when replay failed to overturn what the Twins felt was an unjust out at first base. And what the heck, maybe that rage helped Kyle Farmer line a single to center three pitches later to deliver an emotional 5-4 victory for the Twins. Courtesy runner Willi Castro scored from third, and the Twins mobbed Farmer for delivering their sixth walk-off win of the season.
"You can shake things up, is what you can do," the Twins manager declared of his slump-busting strategy before the Twins tried to shake up their five-losses-in-six games lull. Maybe his stress simply boiled over, or maybe he genuinely felt disrespected, but Baldelli acted out that impulse in the fourth inning, when Joey Gallo was called out on a changeup that he believed missed the outside corner.
As Gallo turned to protest, Baldelli hustled out and took over the argument with home plate umpire David Rackley, who didn't listen long before ejecting him. Was the ejection deserved, or a by-the-book toss for arguing balls and strikes?
"It's probably [for] what was coming out of my mouth," Baldelli deadpanned. he argued a bit longer, then headed for the dugout.
Before he could get there, though, Rackley — apparently hearing Gallo shout something from the dugout — ejected the slump-ridden outfielder, too, and Baldelli charged back to loudly register his objection. The manager threw his hat, shouted at crew chief Chris Guccione and finally stomped off, his arms stretched wide in disgust.
"It's great. Rocco, he put on a good show out there," credited Farmer. "That was one of the better ones I've seen."