MINNEAPOLIS — The box score says Jorge Polanco had a quiet game, just 0 for 1. The reality is, it was plenty loud.
Polanco hit a fly ball to the right-field warning track in the bottom of the ninth off former Twin Matt Wisler, deep enough to score Max Kepler from third base with the winning run, and the Twins won a series from a first-place team for the third time in a week with a 5-4 victory over the Rays at Target Field.
Kepler opened the inning with a double into the left-field corner, and he took third when Tampa Bay left fielder Austin Meadows let the ball bounce past him. That allowed Polanco, who walked three times and hit into a double play in his first four plate appearances, to be a walk-off hero for the third time this season.
The Twins are 7-3 since Aug. 5, having taken three of four from the Astros, two of three from the White Sox, and now two of three from the Rays, whose 71-47 record is still the best in the American League. It's the first time this season the Twins have won three consecutive series.
The Twins scored twice in the first inning and twice in the fourth, mostly due to the generosity of Rays pitching and the timeliness of Josh Donaldson's hitting. Tampa Bay starter Luis Patino walked three hitters in the first, with Donaldson's single scoring one run and Trevor Larnach's bases-loaded ground out padding that lead.
Two innings later, Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco drew two-out walks against reliever Ryan Sherriff, and Donaldson made the Rays pay. All-Star reliever Andrew Kittredge left a slider in the middle, and Donaldson hit it into the left-field corner, giving the Twins a four-run lead.
Rookie Charlie Barnes contributed his strongest start yet, mostly shutting down the league's second-highest scoring team for five innings on just three hits. Barnes gave up a single and double to start the third inning, but escaped without allowing a run by getting a ground ball and two strikeouts. Rays catcher Mike Zunino connected on a 2-1 change-up in the fifth inning, though, and drove it into the left-field bleachers, his 25th home run of the season and Barnes' only mistake.
