MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s Manuel Margot scored from second in a five-run seventh inning on one of four Miami errors and the Twins rallied to beat the Marlins 8-3 on Wednesday night.
Christian Vázquez’s sacrifice bunt in the seventh was thrown wide of first base, allowing Margot to score. Carlos Correa followed with an RBI double that scored Vázquez, and Carlos Santana added a three-run double as Minnesota snapped a three-game losing streak and sent Miami to its 100th loss of the season for the fourth time in franchise history.
The Twins kept their playoff hopes alive. Minnesota is 1 1/2 games behind Detroit in the race for the AL’s final wild card with four games to play. Detroit, Kansas City (which owns the second wild card) and Seattle, which trails the Twins by a half-game, were all victorious on Wednesday.
Another short start by Minnesota rookie Simeon Woods Richardson necessitated the comeback. Jake Burger hit a three-run homer for the Marlins three batters into the game, and Miami’s first five hitters reached base in the first.
“There’s some tough-mindedness there,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “And the guys stayed at it. It’s not easy when you are down and you’re down early. It is a challenging thing. We almost pretend like it’s not, but it is. It is. But the ability to refocus our attention on what we needed to do was very good.”
Griffin Jax (5-5) worked 1 1/3 innings of relief and earned the win for Minnesota. Six Twins relievers covered eight innings and allowed five hits and no walks.
Marlins right-hander Declan Cronin allowed the inherited runner to score in the seventh after Brooks Lee had doubled off the right-field wall against Michael Peterson (3-1). Peterson allowed one run in one-plus innings. Cronin surrendered four unearned runs.
Woods Richardson finishes his first full season in the majors with a 5-5 record and 4.17 ERA. He was 3-1 with a 3.51 ERA in the first half before pitching to a 5.23 ERA in the second half.
“Baseball happened,” Woods Richardson said of his start. “But what also happened is the bullpen put up zeroes. We got a great team win. We never gave up today. Each pitch, each out, each quality AB we have, we never gave up.”
Byron Buxton homered for the Twins, snapping a stretch of 67 consecutive innings for the team without a home run. Minnesota hadn’t homered since Willi Castro went deep in the eighth against Cleveland on Oct. 17.
“As long as we win, that’s all that matters,” Buxton said.
Edward Cabrera allowed three runs in five innings in a start for Miami. The 26-year-old right-hander was coming off a seven-run start against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but had a 3.71 ERA in his previous 12 starts since the All-Star break.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Twins: OF Matt Wallner was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left oblique strain, and RHP Justin Topa (left patellar tendinitis) was reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Topa, acquired in the January trade that sent Jorge Polanco to Seattle, had missed the entire season before pitching the ninth. RHP Jorge Alcala and Austin Martin were recalled from Triple-A, with LHP Brent Headrick options and LHP Cole Irvin designated for assignment.
UP NEXT
RHP David Festa (2-6, 4.80 ERA) starts for Minnesota in the finale of the three-game series on Thursday. Miami counters with RHP Valente Bellozo (3-4, 3.82).
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
