ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Twins infielder Nick Gordon plays anywhere from second base to left field toward season's end in some experimentation that could anoint him a useful utility player.
He used his bat and his legs to show his worth in Sunday's 6-5 comeback victory at Tampa Bay.
It ended a three-game weekend series in which they lost the first two games with a victory over the East Division-leading and defending American League champion Rays.
It also ended the Twins' four-game losing streak.
They did so with Gordon — a second-base starter on Sunday — going 3-for-5 at the plate, with two RBI singles in the seventh and ninth innings.
The first tied a game at 5 that the Twins once led 4-0 and later trailed by 5-4.
The second was the eventual winning run after he drove in Josh Donaldson in the ninth after Donaldson had doubled.
The Twins held on with reliever Alexander Colome on in the ninth, even after they couldn't score again despite having the bases loaded. Gordon gave them achance when he beat a force-out with his speed to extend the inning with two outs, but Rob Refsnyder flew out to end the inning.
The Rays threatened in the bottom of the ninth when young star Wander Franco beat out an infield chopper that moved Brandon Lowe to third after he walked to start the inning.
Former Twin Nelson Cruz flew out deep to Byron Buxton in center field to end the game with runners on first and third.
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli left the game before Tampa Bay's bottom of eighth so he could catch an evening flight home to Minneapolis to be with his wife, Allie, for the birth of their first child, a daughter.
He said farewell to coach and longtime mentor Bill Evers, who'll manage the team until Baldelli returns. He did so shortly after 4:05 p.m. local Tampa time, the time he said Sunday morning he'd leave the dugout no matter what inning it might be and head for his dinnertime flight.
Once trailing 4-0, the Rays scored five consecutive runs — two in the third and three in the fifth against both starter Griffin Jax and reliever Caleb Thielbar.
Rays left fielder Austin Meadows' 23rdhomer this season — a two-run shot — came after Thielbar entered with two outs in the fourth inning and threw two strikes, then two balls before Meadows launched that 2-2 pitch into the right-field seats.
The Twins led 4-0 after their top of the third, but then did not score again — despite threatening in the fourth with two on and nobody out — until the seventh inning.
That's when Buxton tied the game with his second hit on Sunday, stole second base, advanced to third on Max Kepler's fly out and scored on Gordon's single to center.
The Twins shaped their Sunday lineup, adding left-handed bats for right-handed ones — including first baseman Miguel Sano's — to counter Rays right-handed starter Luis Patino.
The Twins stacked four consecutive left-handed hitters in the middle of the lineup after Donaldson batted clean up.
Minnesota forced Patino to throw 31 pitches in the first inning alone and 73 before he departed with just two outs in the second inning. The Twins scored three runs in the second inning and another in the third, but left the bases loaded after they scored that lone third-inning run that briefly gave them a 4-0 lead. They did so again in the ninth inning after Gordon scored the go-ahead run.
The Rays countered with two runs of their own in the third inning, including Lowe's two-run homer.
