The Twins walk off with a a homer in the ninth (photo/MLB)
Jason Heyward homered in the seventh inning, the only run to support another solid outing by Jaime Garcia, and the offense only managed four other hits as the Twins rallied in the 8th and 9th inning to take a 2-1 victory in the series finale. Each team won both of their games on their home field.
Heyward’s blast went deep to right center field off Mike Pelfrey to break a scoreless tie. It went an estimated 414 feet. The Twins threatened in the 7th, loading the bases off Garcia and Seth Maness, but Maness got Twins first baseman Kennys Vargas to hit into a groundball double play to shortstop Jhonny Peralta, who stepped on second and threw to first.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Kevin Siegrist struck out the first two batters he faced and had two strikes on Joe Mauer who fouled off a couple of pitches. Mauer hit a 3-2 pitch to the opposite field for a solo homer to tie the game at 1-1.
Matt Carpenter led off the ninth with a double and moved to third on a Peralta ground out, but for the second game in a row, Mark Reynolds and Yadier Molina failed to come through. Reynolds struck out and Molina flied out.
In the bottom of the ninth, Vargas redeemed himself hitting a game winning homer off Carlos Villanueva with two outs.
Garcia finished the game no runs on six hits and two walks in six plus innings.