MINNEAPOLIS _ In Tuesday night's early innings for the Twins, their game against the White Sox appeared to be a history-making rout. Then it became an epic collapse. Then it turned into a seesawing, extra-inning affair.
And then it came down to the bizarre at-bat of Ronald Torreyes.
The Twins ground out three runs in the bottom of the 12th inning, with Torreyes forcing in the winning run by getting hit by a pitch, to finally polish off the White Sox, 9-8, and shrink their magic number to win the American League Central title to seven.
The Twins allowed Chicago to come back from a five-run deficit. The score was tied 5-5 when the game went into extra innings. The White Sox never got the payoff, however, even after taking the lead in the 11th and 12th innings. Tim Anderson's 17th homer of the season gave a White Sox a brief lead in the 11th, only to have it erased by a Mitch Garver sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the inning.
Chicago jumped ahead again 8-6 in the 12th when Ryan Cordell _ who entered the game as a defensive replacement in the bottom of the 10th _ popped a two-run home run into the bullpen. Marwin Gonzalez, however, delivered a two-run single in the bottom of the 12th before Torreyes was plunked by Jose Ruiz to drive in the winning run.
The Indians couldn't gain any ground on the Twins, despite a 7-2 victory over the Tigers.
Miguel Sano's three-run homer into the third deck at Target Field was his 30th of the season, giving the Twins five players with at least that many this season, something no team had achieved before Tuesday. Sano joined Nelson Cruz, Max Kepler, Eddie Rosario and Garver in the 30-bomba club.
The Twins led 5-0. Left-hander Martin Perez had a nice lead to work with but gave up hard-hit ball after hard-hit ball. Chicago hitters remained aggressive, and it eventually led to Perez's downfall.
The White Sox got an RBI single from James McCann in the fourth to get on the board. Chicago then got the first two men on in the fifth, with both eventually scoring to get Chicago within 5-3. After Moncada reached on a single, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli had seen enough, lifting Perez for Trevor May. In 4?2/3 innings, Perez gave up three runs on 10 hits. Chicago hitters swung at Perez's first pitch nine times, fouling off two but getting four hits. Perez could not adjust and, combined with the loud contact, it made for a strange evening.
May got out of the fifth, but Zack Collins and Adam Engel hit back-to-back home runs off May in the seventh.
Chicago got the first two runners on in the ninth off closer Taylor Rogers. Leury Garcia reached when his grounder went off the heel of Jorge Polanco's glove for an error. Tim Anderson followed with a tapper back to the mound, but Rogers' throw to second was late, and both runners were safe.
Rogers dug in and got Jose Abreu, with 119 RBI, to ground into a double play. Then Eloy Jimenez couldn't check his swing in time on a Rogers slider, striking out to end the inning. The Twins got a two-out walk in the bottom of the inning from Cruz, but could not get him home.
The Twins scored five runs on Chicago in the third inning, when it looked like the momentous home run was going to be part of an easy victory,
Ryan LaMarre, who was with Class AAA Gwinett three weeks ago, led off with a home run to right field, his first homer in the majors since Aug. 29, 2018.
Mitch Garver walked, then Polanco attempted to bunt his way on, directing a ball down the third base line. Yoan Moncada jumped on the ball to throw Polanco out by half-step.
That brought up Cruz, who entered the game 5-for-8 against Detwiler with three home runs. Despite it being early in the game, Chicago manager Rick Renteria walked Cruz intentionally.
The retaliation was immediate, as Rosario lashed a double to right center, scoring Garver to make it 2-0. That brought Sano to the plate. Detwiler tried to come inside with a fastball, left it over the plate then bent over at the waist as Sano tore into the pitch. The ball landed into the front rows of the third deck in left and the crowd jump to its feet.
The three-run blast gave the Twins a 5-0 lead while putting them in the record book.
It is the second-longest home run hit in Target Field history, trailing only the 490-foot cannon off of Jim Thome's bat in 2011.
