Minnesota Twins outfielder Jake Cave hit a home run and doubled four runs which led the team to win 8-3 to finish a three-game sweep against the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.
Cave managed to tie the game on Saturday with a two-out single in the ninth inning before the Twins won in the 10th. He was recalled from the minors early in August and has been playing more frequently with All-center fielder Byron Buxton on the injured list. Cave said he was ready to play any role the team’s manager Rocco Baldelli would assign him to.
“If I get a chance to start, awesome, I love it,” Cave said. “If I’ve got to come off the bench and help somebody out, then I love that, too.”
Throughout the game, Max Kepler, Jose Miranda, and Gio Urshela each also had an RBI double before Cave drove in two more with another double.
After getting off on a rough start when he was robbed of a base hit on a sliding catch by the Giants outfielder LaMonte Wade, Jr., Cave helped lead the Twins by 3-2 with his second home run of the season in the fourth inning. He later added a two-run double in the fifth inning to cap a five-run rally, allowing the team to end the game with a win over the Giants.
Twins’ performance
Sunday’s victory at Target Field brought an end to Minnesota’s six-game losing streak that they had experienced since the start of this series.
The team’s six lose-streak knocked them out of four games back in the AL Central, with the last three losses courtesy of the Houston Astros.
Both the Twins and the Giants kept exchanging the lead throughout the game. Regardless, Baldelli considered the game some of the best the team has ever played throughout the year.
“It was good to complete the series today,” Rocco Baldelli said.
The Giants had an initial lead of 1-0 in the third inning on Lamonte Wade Jr.’s RBI double. The Twins managed to tie in their half due to Carlos Correa’s RBI double, allowing the team to score Nick Gordon from first.
San Francisco took a lead once more with Emilio Pagan relieving Aaron Sanchez with two out and a man on. Previously, Sanchez was charged with two earned runs on six hits, a walk in 3 2/3 innings, and struck out two. The Giants later walked Wilmer Flores to plate Austin Wynns.
The Twins eventually managed to score 11 hits and went 4 for 10 with runners in scoring position and stranded five runners. They dominated the game in the fifth inning and sent nine batters to the plate, combining 5 for 9 with four RBI doubles.
Devin Smeltzer (5-2) pitched three innings, performed a shutout and earned his first win since June 23 against the Cleveland Guardians, where he won in a 4-1. Meanwhile, the Giants starter Jakob Kunis (4-4) was charged with six earned runs on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings, but didn’t walk a batter and still struck out two.
Cave’s two-run homer to the right field eventually put the Twins up 3-2 in the bottom of the inning. The Giants successfully tied the score again with 3-3 and Evan Longoria started the fifth inning with a double off Pagan and scored on Brandon Crawford’s single off Smeltzer.
In the end, the Twins outscored the Giants with a combined 20-5 and rallied from a two-run, ninth-inning deficit to win 3-2 on Saturday’s game.