Brooks Lee broke a tie with a two-run single in the sixth inning to lift the visiting Minnesota Twins to a 6-5 win and a three-game series sweep over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday afternoon.
Lee (2-for-4 with a double) was one of four Twins to record multiple hits in the game. Orlando Arcia was 3-for-5 with a double and a run.
Once the Red Sox took a 4-3 lead in the fourth inning, the Twins’ three-hit sixth turned the score for good.
Reliever Tyron Guerrero (0-1) left the game to Garrett Whitlock for a two-out, two-on situation after singles by Arcia and Ryan Kreidler came around two strikeouts. Austin Martin hit a game-tying double to the left field track, and then Lee singled home a pair. Martin was dead to rights at home, but catcher Carlos Narvaez could not hold onto the ball to make a tag.
Minnesota starter Bailey Ober (6-2) threw five innings of four-run ball, with seven hits and three strikeouts. Ober and two relievers held the Red Sox to just one hit from the fifth through the seventh inning before Yoendrys Gomez stranded two Boston runners in the eighth.
In Boston’s ninth, Nick Sogard hit a leadoff triple and scored on Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s one-out double to left. Connor Wong, who pinch-ran after Narvaez walked, was tagged out as a potential tying run. With two on, Travis Adams got Ceddanne Rafaela to fly out to save the game.
Masataka Yoshida and Willson Contreras both homered and Wilyer Abreu hit two doubles for the Red Sox.
The Twins struck first as Kody Clemens lined a two-out single to right in the first. Gray had recorded the first two outs before Trevor Larnach was hit by a pitch and Josh Bell walked to set up the RBI opportunity.
Yoshida evened the score with a solo homer just inside the right field line to lead off the second.
The see-saw trend continued with two Minnesota runs in the third. Lee cracked a leadoff double to deep right and scored on Larnach’s knock past the diving Contreras at first. After infield singles by Bell and Clemens loaded the bases, Victor Caratini grounded into a double play that brought another home.
After Narvaez caught a runner stealing to help Gray through an unconventional 1-2-3 fourth, the Red Sox started their half of the frame with three straight hits and carried out a lead.
Abreu started the line with a first-pitch double off the Green Monster, and Contreras crushed a towering homer to left to tie the game. Yoshida followed with a wall-ball double to left, and after two outs, Marcelo Mayer knocked a line single past first base.
