Garver powers win -- and makes Twins history

MINNEAPOLIS -- Mitch Garver’s first swing of the bat on Saturday night officially made him the most powerful catcher in Twins history. His final swing of the bat slammed the door on the Indians and helped the Twins end a particularly difficult day on an emotional high.

Garver normally times a fist pump -- his “Show Pump” -- with the relievers in the Twins’ bullpen as he hits second base during his home run trots. But he couldn’t wait that long after smashing a towering fly ball to right field in the seventh inning against the Indians, unleashing an ecstatic series of fist pumps between first and second after the ball landed in the flower pots on the right-field ledge for a three-run shot that powered the Twins to a 5-3 victory over the Indians.

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“First, off the bat, I thought, 'That's a deep sac fly or off the wall,'” Garver said. “And then, it just kept carrying and carrying and you know what? Insanity ensued after that."

The catcher’s second homer of the night -- and 28th of the season -- brought a sellout crowd of 39,573 at Target Field to its feet with a thunderous roar as it watched the Twins reclaim an American League Central lead of 6 1/2 games over Cleveland with four head-to-head contests remaining between the clubs.

A beaming Garver raised both arms above his head as he emerged from the first-base dugout for a curtain call.

“Given the situation -- playoff push, September baseball, tight ballgame -- I mean, that’s got to be one of the biggest,” Garver said.

That high was all the more significant on a particularly tough day for the Twins’ organization. Before the game, the Office of the Commissioner announced a season-ending suspension for Michael Pineda, the club’s most consistent starter in the second half. Pineda addressed the team in an emotional meeting behind closed doors before the Twins took the field.

“We had a lot of sympathy for Big Mike,” Garver said. “We love that guy; he’s been huge for this team, as a player, as a mentor, as a person, you know? And getting into the game, all we had to do was compete, and [Jake Odorizzi] started us off with three punchouts in the first and really just kind of kick-started the whole game. That was a great start.”

The Twins came out firing, with four strikeouts in the first two innings from Odorizzi, who fell one shy of his career high with 10 strikeouts in 5 1/3 frames, and a first-inning homer from Garver that gave the Twins an early lead.

“It was one of those things we wanted to get out there and kind of get a game going to put that behind us, for all of our sakes,” Odorizzi said.

"There are a lot of ups and downs in life and in this game,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “With everything that was going on today and the way our guys responded, it's a great way to go to bed tonight and wake up tomorrow and show up again to the field.”

Garver’s go-ahead blast in the seventh was set up by a game-tying RBI triple by Jonathan Schoop and a walk by Max Kepler before Cleveland manager Terry Francona turned to right-handed reliever Nick Goody to face Garver in a tie game with runners on the corners.

“I kind of stepped in that box and I felt like something cool was going to happen,” Garver said. “I was going to get that run in one way or another. I was totally committed to getting that run in, whether I had to put a ball in play or beat out a double play or somehow get the ball in the air. I was getting that run in.”

The Twins’ catcher was expecting a slider, but got a four-seam fastball that hung directly over the heart of the plate and smashed it an estimated 352 feet to right.

That swing might loom particularly large in the bigger picture as the season-long race for the American League Central crown approaches its conclusion, but an earlier swing marked a significant personal accomplishment for the Twins’ breakout star, who clubbed a solo shot in the first inning to give him the most homers as a catcher in a single season in team history.

That first-inning blast off Cleveland starter Aaron Civale was Garver’s 27th of the season -- all as a catcher -- pushing him atop the leaderboard, past Earl Battey’s 26 homers as a catcher for the 1963 Twins. The shot in the seventh added another to Garver’s tally, pushing him past Yankees backstop Gary Sanchez for most as a catcher in the Majors this season.

"It honestly hasn't set in yet,” Garver said. “I'm having a really good year and it's been a lot of fun. It's a great team and we play really good baseball together and I just think I'll have time to reflect on that a little bit later.

“Right now, I'm still more focused on putting up runs, getting my pitchers through games and winning ballgames. That's what's most important to us as a group right now."