Gordon is double-clutch as Twins rally

The Twins found plenty of timely hitting on Sunday -- and they needed every bit of Nick Gordon’s doubly clutch performance.

Gordon tied the game in the seventh with a two-out RBI knock, then he delivered again in the top of the ninth with a go-ahead single up the middle that proved decisive in Minnesota’s 6-5 victory over Tampa Bay in the finale of the three-game series at Tropicana Field.

• Box score

“Just having good at-bats,” Gordon said. “We stayed fighting. Every inning, we were tough outs. That’s a sign when you’re going up having great at-bats, staying in the game, and we were able to get some timely hits when we needed them.”

The rookie utility man matched his career high with three hits, and the Twins took full advantage of the fact that the situations proved ripe to make him the hero. With Minnesota trailing, 5-4, in the top of the seventh, a single by Byron Buxton and walk to Jorge Polanco preceded two outs before Gordon lined a single to right-center to bring home the tying run.

And following manager Rocco Baldelli’s departure to attend to the birth of his first child at home in Minneapolis, Gordon made interim manager Bill Evers’ job much simpler by following Josh Donaldson’s double and an intentional walk to Max Kepler with a grounder through the infield off Rays reliever Andrew Kittredge to help the Twins avoid a series sweep.

“Just looking for something over the middle of the plate,” Gordon said. “I know they gave me that big hole over there, so I knew if I got anything dropped through there, I could definitely handle it. They gave me a pitch I could do that with, and I got it done, so I was thankful for that.”

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In front of a large group of family and friends present due to the proximity of his hometown in central Florida and his current home on the outskirts of Orlando, Gordon knocked three hits for the first time since June 4 as he looks to work out of a funk that saw him collect one hit in his last 16 at-bats, dating back to Aug. 25.

Entering the game, Gordon was hitting .176/.247/.235 in a mostly part-time role since the start of July. But he has benefited from Trevor Larnach’s demotion to the Minors by earning the opportunity to show his newfound defensive versatility in the big leagues, featuring appearances at center field, left field, third base, shortstop and second base in his last seven games.

“I think his concentration during the game has been great,” Evers said. “His ability to come to the park and do different things has made him a valuable part of this team at this particular time.”

Considering the luster of his former top prospect status wore off amid the health issues that plagued him in the Minors over the last two-plus seasons, Gordon’s best path to the 2022 roster is through that added versatility -- and continuing to adapt to the league’s pitching, one game at a time, will help his cause as well.

“Never take a pitch off,” Gordon said. “Guys have better stuff, just stay true to what I do, not getting out of my game. You’re going to have some days down and some days when you’re up. You’ve just got to stay consistent, stay on an even keel and just continue to work hard.”

There were plenty of other clutch hits from elsewhere in the lineup earlier in the game. The string of left-handed bats stacked at the bottom of the lineup against Rays right-hander Luis Patiño did its job by chaining together four hits and a walk with two down in the second inning to stake an early 3-0 lead on Jake Cave’s RBI single and Luis Arraez’s two-run single.

They mounted another two-out rally in the third, when Cave delivered another RBI knock to extend Minnesota’s lead to 4-0.

But the Twins squandered a prime opportunity to add on in the fourth -- and for a while, it looked like that could prove the difference in the game. After Arraez singled and Buxton doubled to start the fourth inning, Polanco cracked a line drive up the middle that was snared by shortstop Wander Franco, resulting in Arraez being doubled off third base and a scoreless frame -- and soon after, Austin Meadows hit a go-ahead two-run homer, setting the stage for Gordon’s late heroics.