BOSTON — He's an Air Force captain, so Griffin Jax has watched plenty of objects soar far and fast and eventually out of sight. He's probably getting tired of it.
Red Sox first baseman Travis Shaw lined a home run into the right field seats off Jax, and outfielder Hunter Renfroe bashed a pair of supersonic clouts over Fenway Park's looming left-field wall. The Twins rallied, but could not overcome a pitching staff that has allowed seven or more runs in five consecutive games, falling 11-9 to the Red Sox.
With the Twins roster now completely bereft of their top seven or eight preseason starting-pitching options, Jax suddenly outranks most of his rotation mates. And in his seventh start in a major league career that stretches all the way back to June, Jax raised his home-runs-allowed total to 14 in just 48 2/3 innings. He also gave up four walks and three doubles, so the outcome wasn't a surprise.
What might have been, though, was the Twins' spirited attempt to overcome all that trouble, especially after three ugly losses in New York to the Yankees over the weekend. Minnesota trailed by six runs for the fourth consecutive game, 9-3 after five innings, but immediately fought back. Mitch Garver, facing his former batterymate Martin Perez, bounced a ground-rule double into the right field corner, and scored two batters later on Miguel Sano's ground out.
The Twins kept it up against Perez in the seventh, with Jorge Polanco cracking a 408-foot home run two rows above the wall in left-center, cutting the Red Sox's lead to three runs. Hirokazu Sawamura relieved Perez, but immediately walked Josh Donaldson and gave up a single to Luis Arraez. The inning appeared over and the Red Sox began jogging off the field when Nick Gordon swung at a third strike in the dirt, but umpire Phil Cuzzi — who took over behind the plate for Tom Hallion after the crew chief was injured by a foul ball — ruled that Gordon had nicked the ball, making it a dropped foul tip.
Given a second chance, Gordon grounded a single up the middle, scoring both of his teammates and cutting Boston's lead to one run.
But before they could try to complete their largest rally of the season, Boston simply flexed its Fenway muscle once again. After Christian Vazquez led off the eighth inning with a single, Kiké Hernandez ripped the first pitch he saw from Caleb Thielbar, who had not allowed a home run in his most recent 13 appearances, just inside the foul pole above the green wall.
Donaldson led off the ninth inning with a home run off Matt Barnes, who then was pulled for former Twins righthander Hansel Robles after walking the next two batters. Robles, who entered with a 5.40 ERA in nine games with the Red Sox, struck out Gordon and Sano before retiring Jake Cave for his 11th save of the season and first with his new team.
It was a disappointing finish for the Twins, who had won four consecutive series against some of the league's best, until arriving in the middle of the AL East race this week. The Yankees tore apart Minnesota pitching for 24 runs in three games, and the Red Sox somehow made it worse.
Max Kepler set an offense-first tone for the game right from the start, leading off the game by bouncing a ball off the center field fence and racing around the bases for his fourth triple of the season. It was the first time since Brian Dozier did it in Kansas City in August 2013 that a Twin had tripled as the first batter of a game.
