Brooks Lee’s career-best five RBI help Twins beat Reds 9-2 to avoid sweep

When the Twins were at one of their lowest points in the season with teams chipping away at their lead in the wild-card race, Brooks Lee delivered the best game of his rookie season.

“I hope it happens at an even better time in the playoffs,” said a smiling Lee after the Twins avoided being swept by the Cincinnati Reds with a 9-2 victory Sunday at Target Field. “I hope I can do that there, too.”

Lee hit a go-ahead, two-run single with two outs in the sixth inning, and he pulled a three-run triple down the first base line in the seventh to break the game open. His five RBI were a career high.

With 13 games left in the regular season, the Twins hold a 2½-game lead over Detroit and Seattle for the AL’s final playoff spot. Beginning a four-game road series in Cleveland on Monday, the Twins’ divisional hopes are essentially over, but they are 2½ games behind Kansas City for the second wild card.

Lee, playing in his first playoff race, entered Sunday with only three hits in his past 33 at-bats. He credited a pregame chat with Jose Miranda for his first multihit game since Sept. 2.

“I feel like I need to be focused, but not put so much pressure on myself at the same time,” Lee said. “[Miranda] said he was feeling the same way when he struggled his first year. I bank all my success today off what he was telling me and the way to go about every day. It really helped.”

The Twins have tried everything to break out of their funk. All kinds of team meetings. Encouragement to play loose. Manager Rocco Baldelli aired his frustration last week after an “unprofessional” series at Kansas City. They even brought their Rally Sausage out after a monthslong absence.

All it took Sunday was a game where they did almost all the little things correctly.

They scored all nine runs on two-out hits. Royce Lewis threw out a runner at the plate in the first inning — “It’s a really sneaky big play in that game,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. Elly De La Cruz, one of the fastest players in the sport, was thrown out attempting to stretch a leadoff single into a double in the fifth inning, and Jeffers caught him trying to steal second in the seventh.

“Honestly, I don’t think we’re really playing tight,” Jeffers said. “It’s just how this game goes. You’re hot, you’re cold, you hope that while some guys are cold, some other guys are hot. It just so happened that for a two-week stretch or whatever it is, there hasn’t been many guys that are hot.”

BOXSCORE: Twins 9, Cincinnati 2

MLB standings

Trailing 2-1 in the sixth inning, Jeffers was in a two-strike count against reliever Tony Santillan with two runners on base and two outs. Jeffers fouled a 97-mph fastball a few inches off the plate, then fouled a 96-mph fastball that jammed him near his hands. Once he saw a slider over the plate, he pulled it to the left-field corner for a tying RBI double.

“That moment,” Baldelli said, “was probably a big turning point for us.”

Trevor Larnach, battling a sore hamstring, failed to score from first base when left fielder Spencer Steer had trouble corralling Jeffers’ double against the wall. But Lee picked up Larnach with his two-run single to center, connecting on an elevated 97-mph fastball after he just whiffed on same pitch in the same location. After the inning ended, Twins third base coach Tommy Watkins gave Lee a side hug.

The Twins had six consecutive batters reach base during their five-run seventh inning. Carlos Santana crushed a two-run homer to the facing of the second deck against lefty Justin Wilson. Two hits and a hit batsman set the stage for Lee’s first career triple.

“That’s why the people in front of me are so important,” Lee said. “It’s no fun leading off an inning or hitting with two outs and no one on. It’s fun with guys on base.”

Twins starter David Festa gave up two runs in the fourth inning and exited with the bases loaded after walking the bottom two batters in the Reds lineup. Ronny Henriquez escaped the jam with a groundout on his first pitch, and the bullpen completed 5⅓ scoreless innings.