Polanco, Kirilloff go deep to fuel comeback

July 10th, 2021

MINNEAPOLIS — The Twins handed out special five-player bobbleheads on Saturday commemorating all of their 30-homer hitters from the “Bomba Squad” team of 2019, so it was only fitting that the Twins of the present would throw it back to those days with two big swings.

Minnesota’s offense was stifled for much of the afternoon by a bullpen game from the Tigers’ relief corps, but the sixth inning proved the icebreaker for a third straight contest. That’s when Alex Kirilloff crushed a two-run blast to the second deck in right field to get the Twins on the board before they completed a four-run comeback with a three-run, go-ahead smash from Jorge Polanco in the seventh that helped them to a 9-4 win, their third straight triumph over Detroit.

“It’s a beautiful thing when you stay at it and have the at-bats you’re looking for and you put some runs across the board,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You get some baserunners, you look for a big swing. There’s different ways to do it. Today went deep and brought some runs in and made it happen, but we did it in a few different ways.”

To be fair, for all of the pitching troubles the Twins have endured this season, they’ve done just fine in the home run department — though they’re obviously nowhere close to touching that record of 307 blasts they set in 2019. With 126 homers, they rank second in the American League behind the Blue Jays’ 129, and third in the Majors behind Toronto and San Francisco.

Those woes on the mound nearly caught up to the Twins again in the eighth, when the Tigers got the tying run to third base with one out against Alex Colomé, but the veteran right-hander struck out both Eric Haase and Jeimer Candelario to preserve Minnesota’s one-run lead. The Twins added a big cushion with four more in the bottom of the frame, keeping the pressure on even after the long balls faded away for nine unanswered runs in all.

It helps when you have Luis Arraez in the lineup to slash a two-run single on a two-strike count, helping him finish 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs. Nelson Cruz added three hits, a walk and a stolen base, marking his first season with multiple steals since 2016.

“It seems like every at-bat is [Arraez’s] last,” Cruz said. “He always goes out to compete, every single pitch. He’s a professional hitter, he sprays the ball all over the field. He doesn’t strike out much. In certain situations, he understands who he is as a hitter and takes advantage of that.”

Neither Kirilloff nor Polanco was featured on that home run record bobblehead, but the former could perhaps be part of that kind of hitting show in the future, if and when he builds on the promise of this rookie season. The Statcast-estimated 429-foot blast in the sixth inning marked his eighth of the season, and his fifth that traveled at least 420 feet, tying him with fellow rookie Trevor Larnach for third on the team in blasts of that length behind Nelson Cruz (10) and Byron Buxton (6).

Kirilloff was known more for his ability to hit the ball to all fields as he rose through the Twins organization, with 38 homers in 1,109 career Minor League at-bats, but when he runs into one, he can do big damage with the best of them.

“He can hit the ball a long way, but he doesn’t go up there simply with an all-or-nothing approach,” Baldelli said. “He’s not trying to hit the ball as far as he can and add length to his swing while doing it.”

Polanco is similar. He’s got solid contact ability and decent pop but will surge on occasion with his ability to lay into a pitch and drive it a long way — with his oft-problematic right ankle continuing to hold up in support of that pursuit. His big swing on a Jiménez fastball that caught too much of the zone in the seventh was just the latest example.

“Same approach,” Polanco said. “Just trying to get a pitch to hit and trying to hit it hard, and it happens.”

The Twins have done better this series of staying within themselves and putting the ball productively in play when needed — and even without selling out, they still have enough pop to go yard in those situations, too. The 2019 team from that bobblehead would be proud.

Read More