'Locked in' Polanco hits career-best 23rd HR

BOSTON -- Jorge Polanco's power reached new heights on Tuesday night, and once again, his bat was the spark as Minnesota's offense refused to quit in the face of a huge deficit.

Polanco's two-run blast to the Green Monster in the seventh inning marked his 23rd homer of the season, a new career high, and his big swing spurred a four-run frame that nearly helped the Twins erase a six-run deficit. Ultimately, their surge still fell short despite threatening in the eighth and ninth innings in an 11-9 defeat to the Red Sox in the opener of a three-game series at Fenway Park on Tuesday.

"That's never going to be the result we're looking for, we know that," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "But you'll always take that type of mentality and that type of play when you're behind. You will always take that, and our guys, nobody folded up today. The guys continued to go. You want to see that every time you're down."

Though Boston still carried a three-run lead into the ninth, the Twins went down to the wire by putting the first three aboard in the final frame against Red Sox closer Matt Barnes, including a leadoff 421-foot blast by Josh Donaldson, before former Twins reliever Hansel Robles struck out two and induced a lineout to end the game -- but even those didn't come easily.

Robles, the sixth pitcher out of Boston's bullpen, battled rookie Nick Gordon for an eight-pitch strikeout to begin his outing with men on first and second before Jake Cave also fought for eight pitches before lining out to second baseman Christian Arroyo to end the game, stranding the tying run on first base.

Even after rookie right-hander Griffin Jax allowed a career-high nine runs, the Twins made Boston's chase for the playoffs all the more nerve-wracking thanks to three RBIs from both Polanco and Miguel Sanó, whose huge surges since the Trade Deadline have helped carry Minnesota's bats through a brutal stretch of the schedule.

"Somehow, after all that, we ended up in a ballgame where we were a swing or two away from tying or taking the lead on a day down by six runs, where we kind of forced them to use everybody in their bullpen, and they ultimately came out on top," Baldelli said. "They ended up getting it done when they needed to in a couple of big situations. But I was happy with the way that our guys continued to play after the tough spurt that we were in."

Polanco's 408-foot homer in the seventh off former teammate Martín Pérez marked his seventh of the year from the right side of the plate, the most in his career in a season from that side.

As his overall game has surged this year, from his AL-leading 43 RBIs since July 1 to the defense at second base that has markedly improved from his abysmal full-season performance at shortstop in 2019, he has continued to balance his offensive production from both sides of the plate with a .794 OPS as a righty -- traditionally his less fruitful platoon split -- to build on the All-Star production he demonstrated was possible in '19.

"It's funny; he's really doing it in every way," Baldelli said. "He was locked in today for the whole game. He had good at-bats, top-to-bottom, again, and he drives the ball right-handed over the Monster. There's really nothing that he's not doing right now. He looks great."

Following Polanco's seventh-inning blast, the Twins put a pair on base against Red Sox reliever Hirokazu Sawamura and plated both on Gordon's two-out, two-run single up the middle that pulled Minnesota within a run, 9-8.

Polanco even had a chance to give the Twins the lead an inning later, when he came to the plate with two outs and a man on first, but his sharp liner down the right-field line that might have been a go-ahead homer hooked barely foul, mere feet wide of Pesky's Pole. He struck out three pitches later, and Kiké Hernández's two-run blast in the bottom of the frame appeared to help the Red Sox pull away before the Twins provided the additional drama in the ninth.

Jax's blow-up outing put the Twins behind the eight-ball early in this game, with hanging sliders and mis-executed putaway pitches proving his nemesis, as four of Boston's five run-scoring hits came with two strikes. He'll learn from this outing, which gave Polanco more opportunities to come through in the clutch after the offense fought back.

Considering Polanco became the third Major Leaguer since 1920 to provide the walk-off in three straight team wins last week, that hasn't been the worst situation for the Twins -- though he couldn't come through with another big, late hit this time. But he's still been putting on quite the show.

"In those situations, you just give the guy a clap and a pat, get him what he needs to get ready for a game, and keep riding him, because he's certainly giving us everything right now," Baldelli said.