PHILADELPHIA _ Andrew McCutcheon, Jean Segura and Bryce Harper are hired guns added to make the Phillies a "Phorce" again.
Thanks to a much more threatening lineup, Philadelphia rolled into Saturday's game against the Twins with a plus-23 run differential, second best in baseball.
But the Twins pitching staff, from starter Michael Pineda to closer Blake Parker, had a cure for Philadelphia fever on Saturday while carrying the Twins to a 6-2 win in front of an in-your-face sellout crowd of 44,693 at Citizens Bank Park.
That fever released certain emotions from an in-your-face fan base.
"This is a fun place to play right now," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "The atmosphere is good. The fans are certainly into the game and paying attention to everything going on. They have a very good team. There's reason to be excited in this city.
"But it makes it good for us to also go on the road and play in environments like this. It really locks you in and that energy does change the game sometimes."
Max Kepler and Willians Astudillo hit back-to-back home runs in the third for the Twins, and Eddie Rosario's three-run blast in the ninth off a 95-mph pitch from Seranthony Dominguez was the finishing stroke.
Pineda led a pitching staff that stopped the Phillies from scoring at least five runs in a game for the first time this young season. McCutchen, Segura and Harper were 4 for 11 with a run scored, so they were slowed down more than shut down. But it worked on Saturday. Pineda struck out Harper both times they faced each other.
"When I go to the mound, I'm trying to do my best, you know?" said Pineda, who won his first major league game since June 30, 2017. "And I know this is a really good team and they have really good hitters, and I'm a very aggressive pitcher, but when I'm standing on the mound, I try to live for the situation.
"If they're very aggressive, I want to throw my best pitches, especially starting the count. That's what I tried to do today, and it worked."
Staked to a 3-0 lead in third, Pineda retired 10 of 11 Phillies batters at one point. He was removed after giving up a leadoff single to Segura in the sixth, and Segura eventually scored on a sacrifice fly that got the Phillies within 3-2.
Pineda gave up two runs over five innings on four hits and one walk with five strikeouts. The biggest blow was Rhys Hoskins solo homer in the fourth.
Adalberto Mejia replaced Pineda and gave up the sacrifice fly. Cesar Hernandez followed with a fly ball to center field as Harper tagged from third. Byron Buxton's throw was in time, but Harper attempted to hurdle Astudillo while trying to score. Astudillo tagged Harper before falling over.
"I knew he was running," Buxton said, "so you try to get the throw as close as possible."
Trevor Hildenberger, Taylor Rogers and Blake Parker followed with scoreless outings, with Parker getting the final three outs. It was like Friday night's 10-4 loss to Philadelphia never happened.
"You didn't hear one word about it when we walked in here this morning," Buxton said. "New day. That's what it takes. You turn the page. You worry about trying to help us win the next day and that's what we did today and had a lot of fun."
