Rosario's HR helps Twins take series vs. Tigers

MINNEAPOLIS -- With Eddie Rosario, it simply doesn't matter where the pitch is located.
After falling behind in the count, 0-2, against right-hander Alex Wilson following a wild swing on a fastball above the zone, Rosario swung again at a fastball up and in. This time, he connected on a go-ahead solo homer to right to lead off the eighth, helping to lift the Twins to a 5-4 win over the Tigers in the series finale on Sunday.
"I know the second swing, the second strike was up, so I thought this guy is going to go up again," Rosario said. "And so I tried to stay short and make contact with the ball."
Minnesota won three of four games and hit at least three homers in each game. It marked just the second time in franchise history that the Twins hit at least three blasts in four consecutive games, as they also did it from Sept. 3-6, 2016.
Rosario's team-leading 22nd homer of the year was his second of the series. Rosario is tied for the Major League lead with J.D. Martinez with eight homers on pitches out of the zone, per Statcast™, including the fastball from Wilson in the eighth. He also leads the Majors with 47 hits on pitches out of the zone.
"The odds were in his favor. If you swing at that pitch often enough, you can hit it once in a while," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "I don't know if he was guessing neck-high fastball again, but he guessed right."
It made up for right-hander Jake Odorizzi's struggle to get deep into the game yet again, as he gave up a run in the second on back-to-back doubles to Victor Martinez and Jim Adduci but seemed to settle down until running into trouble in the sixth. He retired 15 of his first 18, but gave up a leadoff double and two walks. He was pulled for reliever Matt Magill after five-plus innings and allowed four runs on four hits with seven strikeouts.

"My fastball command all day was maybe a ball off, a half-ball off," Odorizzi said. "I was executing a lot of pitches, but they were just missing by a few inches consistently. That was the story of the day, just being off."
Magill allowed all three inherited runners to score via a walk, a run-scoring double play and a two-out RBI single from Adduci. All three runs were charged to Odorizzi, who has yet to retire a batter after the sixth inning this year.
Magill remained in the game and found himself in a jam in the seventh with runners at the corners with two outs but was helped by a strong defensive play by Miguel Sanó on a grounder hit down the third-base line by Nick Castellanos.
"That's a run if he doesn't make it, and I think he has a lot of confidence that he can throw a little bit off-balance and still get plenty on the throw," Molitor said. "That's just impressive for any third baseman to be able to do that with that kind of arm strength."
The Twins jumped out to a 4-1 lead, scoring twice in the third and twice in the fourth. With the Tigers forced to use a bullpen game, right-hander Buck Farmer gave up consecutive hits to open the third and reliever Zac Reininger was brought in. Rosario plated a run with a sacrifice fly before Jorge Polanco smacked an RBI double off the center-field wall.

In the fourth, Max Kepler and Jake Cave led the charge, as they both connected on a pair of solo homers. It was Kepler's 16th of the year and the fifth for Cave, who crushed the ball into the CATCH restaurant section above the batter's eye in center field. It had an exit velocity of 108 mph and went a projected 430 feet, per Statcast™.
"I got that one pretty good," Cave said. "I can't think of specific ones that I got that far. I had some pretty good ones last year maybe. I had a couple this year, but that one's probably going to be right up there if somebody were to ask me."

GLYNN MISSES GAME
Third-base coach Gene Glynn left before the game due to illness and was replaced at third by first-base coach Jeff Smith. Assistant hitting coach Rudy Hernandez served as first-base coach.
"He's doing OK," Molitor said. "Wasn't feeling quite right. We're making sure we're checking him out thoroughly, but we didn't put him out there."
SOUND SMART
Cave became the third player to reach the CATCH restaurant in center field, joining Byung Ho Park, who did it against the Angels on April 16, 2016, and Sano, who reached it vs. the A's on May 2, 2017. Hall of Famer Jim Thome also reached that area in 2011 before the restaurant was added.
"That's pretty cool to be with a couple of guys that have power like them," Cave said. "That's pretty neat to be one of three."
HE SAID IT
"I don't tip my cap to him. I know he swings up there. I've seen him do it on TV a thousand times. I think that's a mistake by us -- try to bounce a ball right there. The one pitch that I've seen him ---and I think everybody -- has seen him hit, is balls over his head. We know he likes those high balls. That's why he swung at the first two. You try to go up there again, well, you're kind of feeding him right there. You've gotta bounce the ball, in my opinion." -- Tigers manager and former Twins skipper Ron Gardenhire on Rosario
UP NEXT
Left-hander Stephen Gonsalves, the Twins' No. 5 overall prospect per MLB Pipeline, will make his Major League debut on Monday against the White Sox at 6:10 p.m. CT. Gonsalves, who is replacing the injured Ervin Santana in the rotation, went 9-3 with a 2.96 ERA in 19 appearances (18 starts) with Triple-A Rochester after an early promotion from Double-A Chattanooga this season. The White Sox will counter with right-hander Lucas Giolito.