*Photo from Field Level Media*
How about a split? Edouard Julien homered and drove in 3 runs, Pablo Lopez shined on the mound, and the Minnesota Twins defeated the Tampa Bay Rays with a 4-3 victory Thursday afternoon in St. Petersburg.
The win secured a split in the 4 game series between the teams, with the Twins now at 76-64 on the year and the Rays at 69-71. Two homers at the plate did the trick for the Twins offense, with Lopez able to hold the Rays bats at bay as the Twins temporarily halted a skid.
After a scoreless first inning, the Twins got on the board in a big way in the second. Julien hit a 3 run home run to right field, making it 3-0 Twins on his 8th long ball of the season. One inning later, the Twins added on again thanks to Matt Wallner. He hit a solo shot to right field, with his 11th homer of the season making it 4-0.
When the bottom of the 3rd inning rolled around, the Rays got themselves on the scoreboard. Junior Caminero singled to right field to score Taylor Walls and Jonny DeLuca to make it a 4-2 game. In the 7th, DeLuca crossed the plate again, this time on a double by Yandy Diaz to cut the deficit to 4-3. The Twins locked it down from there.
In his start for the Twins, Lopez held the Rays to 3 runs on 7 hits and a walk while striking out 9 hitters in 6 2/3 innings to get the win. Griffin Jax pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings before Jhoan Duran got his 22nd save of the season with a scoreless 9th inning.
Lopez said after his start "It's definitely a wonderful feeling to see how the stuff is this late into the season, like you said, later into my career. We have all those resources, and the least we can do is to ask questions, see what many ways to get better are out there and try them."
Getting the start for the Rays was youngster Taj Bradley, who gave up 4 runs on 6 hits and one walk while racking up 10 strikeouts in 7 innings pitched as he took the loss. Mason Montgomery made his MLB debut in the 8th and pitched a scoreless inning, while Kevin Kelly had a scoreless inning of his own in the 9th.
Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Bradley's start "The stuff looked really crisp. Got through seven innings. Velo was good. He could have let the early home runs snowball from there, but he did not."
The Twins travel to start a weekend series against the Kansas City Royals, with Zebby Matthews taking the mound in the series opener. The Rays have a road tilt with the Baltimore Orioles as Shane Baz gets the Friday night start.
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