CINCINNATI — The Twins delighted in their distance during batting practice before Tuesday's game. They hit baseballs into the looming upper deck in left field. They hit them off the building that looks like a giant riverboat in center field. Heck, Josh Donaldson hit one halfway up the seats in right field — left-handed.
Yep, the Great American Ball Park is the Great Home Run Ball Park this year, and the Twins took advantage Tuesday, even though the Reds hit more than they did. Mitch Garver wrested the lead away from Cincinnati with a three-run homer in the fifth, and Jorge Polanco did the same in the ninth, smacking a high slider just inside the right-field foul pole to deliver a 7-5 victory.
Summoned to protect a 5-4 lead, Reds closer Heath Hembree walked pinch-hitter Jake Cave and Max Kepler to open the inning, unleashing a torrent of boos from the Cincinnati crowd of 18,396. Brent Rooker fought off three two-strike pitches before finally whiffing, but Polanco continued the battle, fouling off five pitches before belting a low-and-inside slider high into the night, setting off a celebration in the Twins' dugout.
Polanco's home run, his 17th of the season and third in five games, earned the Twins their third win in the last nine games.
The night's five missiles mean that 169 have been hit here this season — the only stadium that's witnessed more homers this year than Target Field. But when Donaldson, still sidelined by a tight hamstring, got a chance to repeat his pre-game heroics, the result was not a grand slam, but a double play.
Maeda, handed a 1-0 third-inning lead on back-to-back doubles by Kepler and Rooker, needed only two pitches to give that lead away. Eugenio Suarez blasted his first pitch, an 89-mph fastball, 389 feet into the right-field seats to tie the game, and Tucker Barnhardt crushed his next pitch, a low sinker, more than 400 feet to right-center. A Jesse Winker double drove in another, making it 3-1.
Garver reclaimed the lead for the Twins, following Maeda's first hit as a Twin, a sharp single to left, and a walk to Rooker with a three-run shot over the left-field wall off Reds starter Tyler Mahle. It was the fourth home run by a Twins catcher in the past seven games, and allowed Maeda to work once more with a lead.
Again, it didn't last long. The second batter of the inning, pinch-hitter Shogo Akiyama, lined a single off his countryman, and Jonathan India, named NL Rookie of the Month for July on Monday, deposited a splitter into the left-field seats.
Maeda has now allowed three or more home runs in a game five times in his six-year career — three of them in 2021.
Both teams went to the bullpens after the fifth inning, and John Gant and Danny Coulombe prevented Cincinnati from advancing another runner past first base. That gave the Twins a chance to mount another comeback, and in the eighth inning, it appeared they would. Garver led off with a single against right-hander Michael Givens, and after Luis Arraez grounded out, Givens walked Miguel Sano and Nick Gordon to load the bases as the announced crowd of 18,396 booed.
Up came Donaldson, in his first at-bat since suffering the hamstring injury before Friday's game, to hit for Andrelton Simmons. He took two not-even-close pitches from Givens, intensifying the boos, then took a mighty swing — and a miss — at a high 96-mph fastball. The fourth pitch was another fastball, and though Donaldson hit it sharply, it was a ground ball directly at Suarez, who started a momentum-killing around-the-horn double play.
But the Twins were saved by Polanco's big moment, even if it looked tenuous for awhile. Alexander Colome came on seeking his first save since April 7, and Tyler Naquin greeted him by looping a single into right field. Colome then made his task even tougher by walking Suarez. But Barnhart popped up, Aristides Aquino struck out, and India ended the game by grounding into a force out.
