Kirilloff makes the most of opportunity with walk-off knock 

MINNEAPOLIS -- If the Twins had stuck to their original plan, Alex Kirilloff might not even have been at Target Field on Wednesday night.

They’ve got to be pretty glad they changed their minds.

Just four games into his return to the Major League roster, Kirilloff provided the clutch hit this lineup desperately needed, knocking his first career walk-off single in the 11th inning that gave the Twins a 4-3 victory over the Padres. The win snapped a three-game losing streak and helped cash in yet another stingy effort from the entire pitching staff -- many of which have gone to waste of late.

“He doesn’t have much fear,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He goes up there in big spots and just looks for a pitch that he thinks he can handle, and simplifies it. That was big for us. We needed someone to just come up and just make it happen, and he did that today. It was nice.”

Griffin Jax escaped a bases-loaded jam in the 11th inning against the heart of the San Diego lineup, and after the Padres issued an intentional walk to Carlos Correa in the bottom of the frame, Kirilloff roped a 2-0 fastball from reliever Domingo Tapia down the right-field line, scoring Max Kepler for the Twins’ third walk-off win of ‘23.

After the third inning, the Twins’ offense couldn’t even get a player to second base until the rulebook did the job for them in extra innings. But at last, that’s when the clutch hits started to fall, starting with Donovan Solano’s game-tying single off Josh Hader in the bottom of the 10th, and ending with Kirilloff’s winner.

“It's definitely a cool feeling, but obviously, the most important thing is playing good baseball and putting together winning games,” Kirilloff said. “We had a lot of good things going for us today -- good offense, some good at-bats, really good pitching and good defense as well. That's a good recipe to keep stacking and winning games.”

Though the Twins originally left Kirilloff in Triple-A following the completion of his rehab assignment on April 30 due to a perceived lack of playing time with the big club, they made a snap decision to take advantage of an opportunity to call him up early and created that playing time by making a tough decision to send down Trevor Larnach.

Since then, Kirilloff has taken some of the best plate appearances on the team -- and that’s what the Twins expect when he’s healthy.

Since his return, he’s 3-for-9 with five walks and only one strikeout -- and whether he’s facing a fastball on the hands like Tapia’s offering in the 11th or a curveball well below the zone from Padres starter Seth Lugo in the third, Kirilloff’s flatter swing and instinct for getting the barrel to the ball helps him do damage to all fields when he’s at his best.

“I think he brings a different flavor to our lineup just because of the pitches that he can hit and the way he approaches at-bats,” Baldelli said. “The pitches he can do damage on, the pitches that he can spray to different parts of the field. … If the pitcher pitches him in different ways, he can find ways to get the barrel to it.”

And, well, the Twins hope this lasts longer than it has in the last two years -- and paves the way for the fruitful, middle-of-the-order presence the Twins have long envisioned for Kirilloff as one of their building blocks of the future.

This version of Kirilloff -- confident, patient, driving the ball with authority -- has been a rare sight at the game’s highest level as he’s dealt with the recurring wrist issues that led to two season-ending surgeries in two years after he tried and failed to play through the pain each time.

This hitter might well be the presence the Twins have been lacking as their lineup has started pressing amid its recent struggles, expanding the zone and leading to the third-highest strikeout rate in baseball entering Wednesday. Kirilloff has reached base multiple times in each of his three starts -- and that’s not to mention the diving catch against Juan Soto -- just one of the Twins' impressive defensive plays -- to start an unassisted double play at first base to end the fourth inning.

For the first time in a long while, the wrist isn’t the story with Kirilloff -- and they’ve needed his jolt.

“It feels good to feel healthy and be back here and playing ball,” Kirilloff said.