Willi Castro hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning to rally the Minnesota Twins to a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday in Minneapolis.
With the Twins trailing by a run, Castro blasted his decisive drive to center off Rays starter Zack Littell (3-6), who pitched seven innings.
Louie Varland (4-3) tossed 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief and was credited with the win. Jhoan Duran pitched a perfect ninth for his 26th save.
The Twins (76-69) evened the three-game series, which wraps up on Wednesday afternoon.
Minnesota relied on the long ball to do its damage off Littell. Castro and Edouard Julien homered.
Tampa Bay (89-57) led 2-1 thanks to Rene Pinto’s solo home run in the fifth inning.
In the momentum-swinging seventh inning, Max Kepler singled with one out, and Littell looked as if he would escape further damage when he struck out Carlos Correa for the second out. However, Castro’s homer put Minnesota on top.
Twins starter Joe Ryan gave up two runs on five hits and two walks with seven strikeouts before he was replaced after throwing 102 pitches in 4 2/3 innings.
The Twins took the lead in the third inning on Julien’s two-out home run, his 12th.
Tampa Bay was held without a hit until the fourth inning, when Brandon Lowe hit a leadoff double. The Rays tied the score on Josh Lowe’s RBI single.
With one out in the fifth inning, the Rays went ahead on Pinto’s home run to left, his fourth long ball in his past seven games.
In the second inning, Ryan was shaken up after Luke Raley’s comebacker deflected off his right hand. Ryan remained in the game after some warmup tosses.
The Rays replaced Yandy Diaz in the bottom of the fifth inning after the All-Star was shaken up fouling the ball off his groin in the top of the inning. Diaz was diagnosed with a testicular contusion, and the timetable for his absence was unknown. He is batting .323 after going hitless with a walk in three plate appearances.
–Field Level Media
