ANAHEIM, Calif. — One of the most persistent symptoms of COVID-19 is exhaustion. Now the Twins will find out for themselves.
Minnesota flew four hours on Wednesday night to reach southern California, and hurried off to make a five-hour flight to Cleveland on Thursday evening, a draining cross-country journey made necessary by the cancellation of games during their outbreak of the virus last month.
And in between airports, the Twins managed to split a pair of games with the Angels during their brief southern California interlude, an achievement by definition mediocre yet undeniably rewarding for a last-place team scrambling to regain its equilibrium.
Jose Berrios allowed two runs over five innings, Miguel Sano continued his home-run tear with a grand slam, and the Twins rebounded from a 7-1 Game 1 drubbing by capturing a 5-3 victory in Game 2. The win snapped a five-game road losing streak, represented their first non-nine-inning victory after 12 consecutive extra-inning or seven-inning losses — and kept Bill Evers undefeated as a major league manager.
Evers, filling in while Rocco Baldelli served a one-game suspension stemming from Tuesday's ejection after Tyler Duffey threw a pitch behind White Sox rookie Yermin Mercedes, clearly instructed Miguel Sano to keep hitting home runs. The slugging first baseman came up with the bases loaded in the first inning and crushed a two-strike fastball from right-hander Griffin Canning into the Angels' bullpen, his fifth home run in six days and his second career grand slam.
Handed that four-run lead, Berrios battled through some early trouble, starting with Jose Rojas' leadoff home run over the high wall in right field. Berrios also gave up an RBI double to Taylor Ward and a run-scoring single to former Twin Drew Butera — but nothing else, retiring his final 11 batters in order. Taylor Rogers and former Angel Hansel Robles finished off the victory, a task made easier when Mitch Garver and Trevor Larnach added solo home runs, Larnach's the first of his career.
That game sent the Twins to the airport with a lot better feeling than they would have had without it, considering the lethargic, get-it-over-with loss they took in Game 1. The Twins fell behind in the first inning, tied the score in the second, but then immediately gave up the lead for good, managing zero hits in the final five innings.
Lewis Thorpe, summoned to start as the extra player added to the roster for doubleheaders, lasted four innings, and allowed four runs, though three of them were unearned due to Josh Donaldson's failure to handle David Fletcher's ground ball in the Angels' three-run second inning.
The Angels added three more runs off Duffey in the fifth inning, two of them scoring on Ward's home run to left-center.
Minnesota's lone run against Angels starter Alex Cobb was scored by Sano, who doubled in the second inning, moved to third on Willians Astudillo's single, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Rob Refsnyder.
