Wallner’s clutch HR has Twins closing in on Guards with DH sweep
MINNEAPOLIS — By the way Royce Lewis was screaming in uncontrolled jubilation, hopping around the on-deck circle, screaming for all to hear that Matt Wallner had called his shot, there’d be no way to tell that a matter of hours earlier, the Twins had gotten a double dose of potentially season-altering bad injury news on Joe Ryan and Brock Stewart.
Sweeping a doubleheader on the most important day of the season to this point will do that.
Target Field erupted as Wallner’s called three-run shot — “He said, ‘Imma get him,’” Lewis yelled — exploded off the bat and carried onto the right-field plaza to give the Twins the lead in the fifth inning. The crowd erupted even louder when reliever Tim Herrin balked home an insurance run in the seventh, leading to Guardians skipper Stephen Vogt’s first career ejection.
Such were the scenes of jubilation in Minneapolis as the Twins perhaps began to swing the momentum of the AL Central race with a 6-3 victory over Cleveland on Friday night to secure a sweep of a critical doubleheader, pulling Minnesota within 1 1/2 games of the division lead.
At the close of business exactly a week ago, the Twins were 6 1/2 games back of the Guardians — but by taking matters into their own hands and extending Cleveland’s losing streak to seven games, the Twins have made up five full games in seven days, with two more head-to-head matchups to go in this weekend series.
When Wallner strode to the plate with two on, two outs and the Twins just having relinquished the lead in the fifth inning, Guardians starter Alex Cobb fell behind, 3-0 — and when Wallner got a center-cut 3-0 fastball, one of the Majors’ most productive hitters over the last month swung with all his might, watched the ball fly and hurled his bat aside to wrest the lead right back.