*Photo from the Star Tribune*
This game felt like a return of the Bomba Squad of 2019. Max Kepler homered, Ryan Jeffers drove in 4 runs, and the Minnesota Twins routed the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 12-1 victory on Saturday in Minneapolis.
In the rout, the Twins offense hit 4 home runs to win their 3rd straight and 6th of 10 games. Two of those homers came from Jeffers, who extended his hit streak to 11 games as the Twins won convincingly on their home field.
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said that hitting coach David Popkins was on top of Jeffers' turnaround. "Popkins was actually sending me videos of him going into Spring Training multiple times, just talking about Ryan: ‘I think this is a really good move for him.' And it's worked."
Lourdes Gurriel Jr gave the D-Backs a 1-0 lead in the top of the second with a solo home run. Willi Castro tied it with an RBI triple in the bottom of the second before Jeffers hit a two run home run to put the Twins up 3-1. In the 3rd inning, Matt Wallner had an RBI double, Castro drove in a run with a sac fly, and Jeffers hit an RBI double to make it 6-1 Twins.
Michael A Taylor hit a solo home run in the 4th, followed by a run scoring fielders choice to make it 8-1 Twins. In the 5th, Jeffers hit a solo home run, with Kepler adding a solo blast of his own in the 6th to make it 10-1. Wallner and Jordan Luplow both added RBI singles for the Twins in the 8th to make it a 12-1 final score.
Jeffers said of his big game that "I knew this is what I had in me and the player I know I can be. It just took a little while to get there. Now, it’s just staying consistent. Stay consistent with the feel and with what I’m doing that’s working. I’m going to go through ups and downs, that’s baseball, but just making sure those downs are short and small, more day to day than going on big ups and downs."
Kenta Maeda got the start and performed well, allowing one run on two hits, striking out 7 hitters in 6 innings to get the win. Jordan Balazovic threw two shutout innings before Jovani Moran closed out the win in the 9th inning.
Ryne Nelson got tagged for 6 runs on 8 hits in just 3 innings for the D-Backs. Joe Mantiply allowed two runs in one inning, with Tyler Gilbert allowing two runs in two innings. Paul Sewald worked the 7th before catcher Carson Kelly pitched the 8th, allowing two runs on 4 hits.
D-Backs manager Torey Lovullo said that "This team’s good enough to come back from any deficit. I believe that. There’s good players that are sitting in that locker room, and that’s why I feel like we’re going to come out the other side. That’s why I come up here and I talk about the positive things, but there are some things that I feel like I need to challenge myself with and these players with."
Up next, the series concludes on Sunday afternoon. The Twins go for the series sweep with Dallas Keuchel making his season debut. The D-Backs try to salvage a game with Zac Gallen taking the mound.
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