Twins avoid sweep with 6-5 comeback win over Tampa Bay Rays

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. – Twins rookie infielder Nick Gordon won't play every game in the season's fading days, and he plays anywhere from second base and third base to left field or elsewhere when he does.

But when he does, he has shown glimpses of the useful utility player he could become.

On Sunday, Gordon demonstrated his value with his bat and hustle in a 6-5 comeback victory over AL East-leading Tampa Bay.

Starting at second base, Gordon went 3-for-5 and delivered RBI singles that tied the score 5-5 in the seventh inning and won the game in the ninth.

He did so after the Twins led 4-0 in their half of the third inning, thanks to a three-run second inning with two outs. They also trailed 5-4 after the fifth when they knocked starter Luis Patino out of the game early but struggled to score again on Tampa Bay's deep bullpen.

He did so also at Tropicana Field not far from he was raised near Orlando.

"I had a lot of family and friends here," said Gordon, the 2014 draft's fifth overall pick. "That was special. Glad they got to see it."

Gordon provided his two big hits. Catcher Ryan Jeffers threw to Gordon that got Joey Wendle stealing and squelched an eighth-inning threat. Reliever Alexander Colome came on in the ninth and let three runners on base, but Gordon helped turned a ground-ball double play.

Former Twins star Nelson Cruz flied out with runners on first and third to end the game — and the Twins' four-game losing streak.

Twins acting manager Bill Evers noted the Colome-Cruz showdown of former teammates at game's end. He managed the final 30-plus minutes Sunday after Rocco Baldelli left in the eighth inning to catch a flight home for the birth of his and wife Allie's first child.

"How ironic teammates are facing one another, I happen to be taking over for Rocco and I'm going, "Please, please, please," Evers said. "All in all, a good day and Roc can have a nice flight home."

Evers praised Gordon's versatility, which includes speed that beat a forceout and extended the ninth inning.

BOXSCORE: Twins 6, Tampa Bay 5

"His ability come to the park and do different things has made him a valuable part of this team at this particular time," Evers said. "He runs and he plays different positions so he has value, without a doubt."

Willians Astudillo played first base for Miguel Sano on Sunday, one day after Sano bruised his left shoulder in a collision with Rays catcher Mike Zunino.

Baldelli called Sano "a little sore," but OK and said the decision was made partly to get more lefthanded bats in the lineup against Patino.

"It all made sense to get him off his feet for a day and let him recover a little bit," Baldelli said.

Twins starter Michael Pineda threw a Saturday bullpen session and remains aimed at a tag-team outing with Bailey Ober on Monday at Cleveland. Ober will start, Pineda will relieve in an arrangement that ideally gets six or seven innings from them combined.

The plan eases Ober's load a little in September and brings Pineda back from a mild oblique strain sustained three weeks ago.

Tampa Bay's 20-year-old shortstop Wander Franco extended his on-base streak to 35 games with a seventh-inning double after he missed Friday's game injured. That's the majors' longest active streak and a Rays rookie record.

He has passed a Rays outfielder named Baldelli, who had a 24-game rookie streak in 2003, and for his young age put his name beside Frank Robinson and Mickey Mantle.

• Center fielder Byron Buxton went 2-for-5 with a double Sunday and is now 4-for-35 in his return from a fractured left hand. He again wore a protective pad on it.

• The Twins twice pinch-hit righthanded batters for lefthanded ones against righthanded pitching, including Rob Refsnyder for Jake Cave with two on in the sixth inning. Refsnyder grounded out. Evers called it "definitely a matchup situation" that involved analytic information.