Buxton, Kreidler Send Twins to Much-Needed Series Victory Over Cardinals

The Twins needed that one. Taj Bradley bounced back with a solid start, Byron Buxton and Ryan Kreidler delivered big swings at the plate, and Minnesota came from behind for a 5-4 victory in Sunday's rubber match against the Cardinals at Target Field. Both Twins wins in this series over St. Louis were one-run games that featured impressive late comebacks.

Although Buxton stayed scorching hot at the plate with three hits, all of which were lasers off of his bat, the game ball for this one goes to Kreidler. He entered the contest as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning and finished with two hits, the game-tying run, the game-winning RBI, and a key defensive play in the ninth.

With two outs in the bottom of the eighth and the score tied 4-4, Luke Keaschall doubled down the line to create a threat against Cardinals reliever George Soriano. The next batter was Kreidler, who had already singled and scored in the seventh. He got a hanging 2-2 sweeper and ripped it almost 400 feet off the wall in left-center to send Keaschall home with the go-ahead run.

Keasch and Kreids swap spots! pic.twitter.com/pby7gCClC3
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) June 14, 2026

Kreidler then made a diving play at shortstop to lead off the ninth inning, with an assist from new first baseman Royce Lewis on the scoop. The play was ruled a hit initially but overturned after a challenge. Yoendrys Gomez got two more outs to secure his sixth save of the season.

The Twins, who rallied from two late-inning deficits on Friday night, trailed 4-2 going into the bottom of the seventh against Cardinals lefty JoJo Romero. After a one-out Keaschall walk, the Twins hit four straight singles. Kreidler got one, then Buxton, then Kody Clemens, and then Lewis to tie the score. The Cardinals were able to escape the jam and keep the score tied. That's when Andrew Morris delivered a key scoreless eighth inning with three strikeouts.

Bradley needed a bounce-back start after allowing 13 earned runs in 13 innings over his three previous outings, and he mostly got it. There were a couple pitches he'd want back, as Alec Burleson took him very deep in the fourth inning and JJ Wetherholt hit a two-run shot in the sixth, but Bradley went 6.2 innings with four earned runs and struck out seven. The final run came after he exited the game.

The Twins, who had 13 hits in this game, stranded a couple runners in both the first and third innings. And in the fourth, Burleson's fifth homer in his last six games put St. Louis in front. Twins catcher Victor Caratini quickly answered with a two-run shot — just his fourth of the year — in the bottom half.

Bradley had allowed only one run through five, but a leadoff walk in the sixth and a Wetherholt blast gave the Cardinals the lead back. And St. Louis doubled its lead with three straight two-out hits in the seventh off of Bradley and Anthony Banda. The exit velocities of the singles were 87.5, 70.9, and 72.5 miles per hour.

Buxton doubled in the first inning, singled in the fifth, and delivered a big RBI single in the seventh. His exit velos were 105, 108.2, and 111.8. Buxton went 8 for 12 with two homers and three doubles in this three-game series, raising his average to .276 and his OPS to .936. He's on quite the tear. Lewis and Clemens also recorded at least one hit in all three games this weekend.

The 33-40 Twins are now headed on the road. They begin a three-game series in Texas on Monday night and will head to Arizona after that.

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