Farmer delivers much-needed walk-off win vs. Red Sox

MINNEAPOLIS -- It wasn’t the best-pitched game, it wasn’t the cleanest game on defense, it wasn’t perfect on the basepaths and it didn’t represent a significant step forward for the lineup. Heck, the manager and left fielder watched most of the game from the clubhouse after getting ejected early on.

But after the Twins’ worst defeat of the season on Tuesday left manager Rocco Baldelli nearly at a loss for words, they simply needed to get back in the win column to begin righting the ship -- and by the skin of their teeth, they barely did.

Jovani Moran’s clutch escape in the top of the 10th inning gave the Twins an opportunity in the bottom of the frame, when Kyle Farmer roped a walk-off single in front of a drawn-in outfield to give the Twins a much-needed 5-4 victory in 10 innings, snapping a three-game losing streak and preventing the Twins from falling into a tie for first place in the American League Central.

“It goes one way or the other after a day like yesterday, right?” Sonny Gray said. “I was very, very proud to see the way that we responded.”

The postgame clubhouse had been silent as a crypt following Tuesday’s blowout 10-4 loss that dropped the Twins to a season-low two games below .500 with their fifth loss in six games, and Baldelli’s comments had been equally bleak, calling it the “lowest level of baseball that you can play as a group” and “[hopefully] the worst day that we’re going to see right now.”

They got to see how they’d respond from getting punched in the mouth like that -- and though a loss would have sunk them even further into that nadir, Wednesday’s positive result allowed them to be proud of their answer. Now, it’s up to them to build on it.

“Honestly, I think any win we get now is going to feel like a big win,” Farmer said. “I think the expectations are high for this team. Every chance we get to win a game, I think it's going to feel like we've won a playoff game. I think that's the way it should be.”

The win didn’t come easily after Jhoan Duran blew his first lead since April 11 when he took the mound for a two-inning save, sending the game to extras. Moran had two runners on when he struck out Triston Casas to send a tie game into the bottom of the 10th.

Target Field grew even more charged when a controversial replay review upheld an out call at first base on Michael A. Taylor’s sacrifice bunt, bringing Farmer to the plate with two on and one out.

Farmer reiterated that the Twins have been pressing over the last few weeks -- on offense in particular -- but he kept things simple and roped a line drive in front of a drawn-in outfield, handing the Twins their seventh walk-off win, tied for most in the Majors.

“One hit, one win could spark the fire and start a wildfire, which is what we want to do,” Farmer said. “Hopefully, today was one of them. Everybody played so well.”

A day after an utterly deflating performance, the Twins came back with some of their better energy of the season, from Royce Lewis aggressively scoring all the way from first base on a deflected dribbler into center field to catcher Christian Vázquez punching the air after Moran’s escape in the 10th to even Baldelli’s ejection following a Joey Gallo strikeout in the fourth inning.

Not only did Baldelli get his money’s worth in one of the more fiery ejections of his career, but he even re-emerged from the dugout to throw his hat and argue again after Gallo was tossed.

“It was everyone in the building -- you could feel it,” Gray said. “Everyone in the building, starting with Rocco. Hopefully, something like this can jumpstart us and we can get back to what’s truly important, and that’s winning.”

This was Baldelli’s hope: the talent in that room is too much for the results not to turn at some point. But they need to keep proving it, one game at a time.

“We needed a game like that,” Gray said. “Everybody was emotionally invested into the whole day, into the whole game, you could feel it. You could feel it from the first inning. .. The way that guys showed up with that desire, with the investment to just win a game, it was a good feeling.”