Four-run frame inspires Twins: 'We never give up, we keep fighting'

HOUSTON -- Two home runs. Four runs. One loss.

On paper, maybe that doesn’t sound like much for the Twins, who dropped a 6-4 decision to the Astros in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday night at Minute Maid Park. In reality, those numbers have the potential to be the only proof Minnesota needed to rebound in Game 2.

When the Astros send a veteran like Justin Verlander, who has made more than 30 postseason starts, to the mound against a young Twins team with a starter making his postseason debut, it’s going to be a challenge. There’s no way around it. Minnesota’s offense did its best to rattle Verlander, but it couldn’t deliver the big hit. But just when all life seemed to be sucked out of the third-base dugout, the seventh inning occurred.

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Verlander had just come out of the game. Matt Wallner was hit by a pitch. Ryan Jeffers singled to left. Two quick strikeouts made it easy to believe this Twins offense -- that mustered just five runs in 18 innings against the Blue Jays in the AL Wild Card Series – was going to struggle to fight back.

Instead, Jorge Polanco launched a three-run homer on a 2-0 pitch over the inner-third of the plate, prompting his teammates to belly up to the railing at the top of the dugout with their arms high above their heads.

“It felt great,” Polanco said. “It was great to get back in the game. That means a lot for us. We never give up, we keep fighting.”

Polanco hit 14 homers in 80 regular-season games this year. A quick look at his heat maps on Baseball Savant show you that he loves middle-middle pitches (who doesn’t) or ones at the same height, but on the outer-third of the plate. Not one of the 55 pitches he saw on the middle-inside part of the plate this season were hit for home runs until Saturday night.

It’s moments like a late-inning, three-run homer that can bring life back into a dugout. But what happened next is what reminds everyone that there’s still plenty of reason to believe this Twins offense has what it takes to fight its way back into this series.

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Designated hitter Royce Lewis already proved he was built for October when he smacked long balls in each of his first two postseason at-bats against the Blue Jays earlier this week. And when Polanco shifted the momentum back in Minnesota’s favor, Lewis delivered again, hitting a 409-foot blast, according to Statcast, that stayed just inside the left-field foul pole.

“I’m just blessed it stayed fair,” Lewis said.

Three home runs in his first three career postseason games is the most by any rookie and it ties Lewis for the second most by any player in that span behind only former Rangers outfielder Juan Gonzalez (four in 1996). It marked the first time the Twins have hit back-to-back homers in the postseason since Game 2 of the 2006 ALDS (Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau).

“Whether it’s postseason or not, to me it’s the same game,” Lewis said. “Obviously, the stage is brighter and the lights are a little bit brighter, but I’ll tell you what, it’s a lot more fun, too. At the same time, it’s the same game, so whoever I can keep growing at the plate, that’s what I’m doing each and every day.”

At the time, the blasts cut Minnesota’s deficit to one run. Another Yordan Alvarez home run in the bottom half of the frame gave Houston a little more breathing room. But it didn’t diminish the Twins’ confidence.

Facing Verlander wasn’t going to be an easy task, but now, he’s out of the picture for the next few games. Minnesota proved it can get to Houston’s bullpen -- a group that tied for the sixth-lowest ERA (3.56) among all 30 bullpens this season -- by jumping on righty Hector Neris right out of the gate.

The Astros are on a quest to repeat as World Series champions. Last year, their bullpen allowed just five earned runs during the entire postseason. After one day, the ‘pen has surrendered four.

There’s no running from the odds. Teams that drop Game 1 of a five-game postseason series have advanced less than 30% of the time. But Minnesota can look at the glass two ways: Half full or half empty. And two swings of the bat in the seventh inning proved the former is more than justifiable.

“I think we showed what we can do,” Jeffers said. “We know we can hang with whoever. … We’re not, like, nervous now after today. I think we take the positives and go with that.”