Carlos Correa's grand slam awakens Twins' dormant lineup in win over Blue Jays
Things looked bleak for the Minnesota Twins, but an eighth-inning grand slam by Carlos Correa sparked a seven-run eighth-inning to lead the Twins to a 9-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon.
The Twins' struggles at the plate continued in the early stages of the game as the Twins struck out 11 times over the first five innings. Although they were on pace to shatter the record of 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning game, the Twins showed signs of life when Trevor Larnach smacked a solo home run in the seventh inning.
Down 3-1 in the eighth inning, the Twins loaded the bases against Toronto reliever Adam Cimber. After Alex Kirilloff struck out on three pitches for the first out of the inning, Correa stepped to the plate and delivered a grand slam to the left-center field gap that gave the Twins a 5-3 lead.
Three batters later, Max Kepler smashed a three-run homer to make it an 8-3 lead and Alex Kirilloff added an RBI double in the ninth inning that gave the Twins just as many runs on Saturday (9) as they had scored in their previous seven games.
The Twins wound up with 17 strikeouts at the plate but it didn't seem to matter in support of Joe Ryan. The right-hander had a solid start, allowing three runs on six hits and a walk with four strikeouts over six innings.
Jorge López came on to pick up the win after pitching a scoreless seventh inning and after Jose De Leon allowed a run in the ninth, Brock Stewart got George Springer to ground into a double play to secure the win.
Correa finished 1-for-5 with the grand slam while Donovan Solano went 3-for-5 with a double and two runs scored and Edouard Julien went 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored.
The Twins improved to 33-32 with the series-clinching win and will go for the sweep when Louie Varland (3-2, 4.40 ERA) takes the mound against Kevin Gausman (5-3, 2.63 ERA) on Sunday afternoon in Toronto.
