Bullpen preserves narrow lead, helps Twins nip Rays 5-4

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. – Trevor Larnach had the swing everyone was talking about inside the Twins’ clubhouse after a 5-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. The homer hit a fan in the face, and Larnach later signed a ball and gifted a bat when they chatted afterward.

The second-most talked about topic was the performance of the Twins bullpen. The bullpen entered Monday with a collective 5.10 ERA since the All-Star break, and it was asked to cover 16 outs with a small lead.

That included Jorge Alcala, pitching for the first time in five days amid his worst stretch of the season. Ronny Henriquez was called upon to pitch in a one-run game. The result: the Twins bullpen combined to give up one run in 5⅓ innings and Jhoan Duran secured his 21st save of the season.

“We needed everyone to come in and pitch well,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, who notched his 450th career win. “We went to a lot of guys. You could break the game up into different parts and probably tell a whole story about it.”

The Twins remain 3½ games behind Cleveland in the American League Central standings, but they have a 5½-game cushion to maintain a wild-card spot.

Larnach gave the Twins a two-run lead in the second inning when he scorched a three-run homer over the right-field wall against former Twins pitcher Zack Littell. Larnach’s line drive left his bat at 112.5 mph and struck a fan in the head. It was his hardest-hit homer since 2021, according to Statcast.

“I met him, signed his ball and just asked him, ‘Are you OK? Do you remember anything?’” said Larnach, adding the fan had kids with him at the game. “We just had some good laughs and a good conversation. It was just one way to remember a ballgame, for sure.”

It was up to the bullpen to make that early lead stand — though it helped when Brooks Lee added a solo homer in the eighth inning in his second game since returning from the injured list. It was the switch-hitting Lee’s first home as a righthanded batter.

After starting pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson labored through 3⅔ innings, using 71 pitches to record 11 outs while giving up three runs, Baldelli said it felt like he was on the phone nonstop with bullpen coach Colby Suggs.

“That was a game that takes a little bit out of you, but it gives you a lot, too, because you feel very good about it when you leave,” Baldelli said.

Alcala, who had allowed nine hits and seven runs in his last 2⅔ innings, stranded a runner at second base with a strikeout in the fourth inning, then stranded two more runners with a called third strike in the fifth inning.

“I think he took it as a great challenge, a great test and he passed that one,” Baldelli said. “He did a great job. We needed a lot of people to really come through, step up, get outs with people on base. We needed guys to do that, but he got it going for us.”

It was the first time Henriquez pitched in a game when the Twins led by fewer than five runs. He retired all three batters he faced in the sixth inning, which included a running catch from Matt Wallner that led him into the right-field wall.

“It feels great,” Henriquez said through a team interpreter. “It means the team knows they can trust in me.”

Once the Twins survived the middle innings, they relied on their usual late-inning options. Griffin Jax struck out two in the seventh inning. Cole Sands surrendered a two-out homer to Jonny DeLuca in the eighth, following Lee’s insurance home run, and Duran pitched a perfect ninth.

When Duran was on the bus before the game, he told teammates the last time he pitched at Tropicana Field, he gave up a walk-off homer to Randy Arozarena, the outfielder who was traded to Seattle in July, on his first pitch.

No such issues in Duran’s return to the ballpark.

“He’s not here,” Duran said of Arozarena, “so it’s good.”

The Twins won back-to-back games for the first time since winning three consecutive games from Aug. 15-17.