Ryan Kreidler's Clutch Blast Sends Twins to Series Victory over Rockies

No Twins player has surprised in a positive way this year more than Ryan Kreidler. When he was claimed off waivers last fall, he was a player with a strong defensive reputation and truly abysmal offensive numbers in his limited time in the majors.

Kreidler's defense has been as good as advertised. What no one saw coming was his bat. He delivered another huge swing for the Twins on Sunday, blasting a go-ahead home run to straightaway center field in the seventh inning of a 3-2 series-clinching win over the Rockies at Target Field. It was the fifth homer of the season for Kreidler, whose OPS is just under .900 on over 100 plate appearances in a Twins uniform.

The 421-foot homer came off of a center-cut 98-mile-per-hour fastball from Rockies reliever Seth Halvorsen. It was the difference-maker in a game where the Twins got three scoreless innings from their top three relievers — Andrew Morris, Anthony Banda, and Yoendrys Gomez — to support a very strong six-inning outing from rookie starter Connor Prielipp.

Ryan Kreidler gives the @Twins the lead! pic.twitter.com/TciGXnqgel
— MLB (@MLB) June 28, 2026

Prior to this season, Kreidler had recorded 211 MLB plate appearances over parts of the last four years, all with the Detroit Tigers. During that time, he hit .138 with a .383 OPS and a strikeout rate of nearly 32 percent. Although his minor-league offensive numbers were decent, there was no evidence to suggest he could hit big-league pitching.

This year has been an entirely different story for the 28-year-old from California. He's hit .290 in his first 104 PAs as a Twin, with five homers and ten total extra-base hits. His OPS is .892. He has 21 RBI and a strikeout rate just above 16 percent. Combine that offense with his outstanding shortstop defense and positional versatility, and you've got a very valuable player.

The other big story from Sunday's Twins win was the performance of Prielipp. The young left-hander gave up a run in the first inning but settled down and went six innings, allowing two runs on six hits. More notably, he struck out a career-high 10 batters and didn't issue a single walk for the first time since his MLB debut in late April. Prielipp threw 93 pitches and got a remarkable 20 swings and misses, including 14 on 34 swings against his slider and curveball combined.

After the Rockies got on the board in the top of the first, the Twins tied it in the second when Royce Lewis doubled and came around to score on a throwing error one batter later. Kody Clemens then gave Minnesota the lead with his 13th homer of the season in the fourth inning. The Rockies tied it off of Prielipp in the sixth but couldn't muster any offense against the Twins' bullpen.

As a fun note, the Twins struck out just once all day against Rockies pitching on Sunday. It's the first time since September 2019 that they've had one strikeout (or none) in a game.

As a less-fun note, Banda exited the game with an apparent injury after coming back out for the ninth inning and hitting a batter with his first pitch. He's been one of the Twins' best relievers outside of a shaky stretch in mid-April, so it would be a tough blow if he winds up on the IL.

The Twins (40-45) won two out of three games over the Rockies (33-51). They've got a tough road trip coming up this week, with three games against the Astros and three against the Yankees.

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