BOSTON _ Ricky Nolasco's inability to pitch in Fenway Park and Miguel Sano's inability to play third base on Saturday were destined to send the Twins crashing to their latest defeat.
Then the seventh inning happened.
It was an inning in which 10 Twins batted, the Red Sox made two questionable defensive plays, Kennys Vargas become a contortionist, the Twins won a replay challenge _ and five runs scored.
It enabled the Twins to take the lead for good, and they won 11-9 with a season-high 19 hits.
Trailing 8-5 in the seventh, Max Kepler tripled in Miguel Sano when his drive was misplayed by right fielder Michael Martinez. Vargas followed with a run-scoring double that Brock Holt missed while trying to make a sliding catch. The Twins took off from there.
Eddie Rosario singled to center. Vargas was waved home and appeared to be tagged out for the final out of the inning. The Twins challenged the play, and replays showed that Vargas twisted his body around catcher Sandy Leon's tag and touched the plate safely, tying the score at 8-8 and keeping the inning going.
Juan Centeno singled and Byron Buxton walked to load the bases. Then Eduardo Nunez, facing Heath Hembree, stroked a 3-2 pitch to center for a two-run single and a 10-8 Twins lead.
David Ortiz's RBI double in the seventh made it 10-9, but Sano hit a solo homer in the eighth to restore the two-run lead.
Fernando Abad pitched a clean eighth inning, and Brandon Kintzler _ after his dramatic save on Friday night, when he loaded the bases with no one out against David Ortiz but pitched out of it _ this time pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning. For the final out, he retired Xander Bogaerts, who finished 4-for-6 and is hitting .643 (18-for-28) against the Twins this season.
Rain fell about an hour before game time, but the game was not delayed. But the weather impacted the game nonetheless.
Robbie Grossman, the second batter of the game, sent a drive into the gap in right-center, but the wind suddenly intensified and blew the ball over Martinez in right. Grossman raced to third with a triple.
The wind continued to blow. Price and his infielders began wiping dust out of their eyes as debris sailed around them. Price tried to pitch as the wind subsided but walked Sano, and gave up a sacrifice fly to Brian Dozier for the first run of the game.
Nolasco immediately got into trouble. A run scored on Ortiz's sacrifice fly. Later in the inning, Nolasco hit Jackie Bradley Jr. to load the bases. Aaron Hill hit into a force play to end the inning.
Eddie Rosario led off the second with single and got a great read on Kurt Suzuki's double off the Green Monster. When the ball got by the outfielders, Rosario scored from first. Byron Buxton then bunted for a hit. When Hill threw wildly to first, Suzuki scored and Buxton when to third.
Nunez followed with an RBI single, and the Twins led 4-1.
But Nolasco proceeded to have more problems than Price.
Boston scored five runs off Nolasco in the bottom of the inning, the last three coming when Hanley Ramirez belted a fat pitch over the Monster with two on. The Red Sox led 6-4, and Nolasco didn't come out for the third.
This was Nolasco's third start ever at Fenway, first as a Twin. In his last two outings here, he's given up 15 earned runs in 51/3 innings.
