BOSTON (AP) — Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner both had RBI singles in the 12th inning and the Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox 4-2 on Friday night.
The Twins won for just the sixth time in their last 17 games to move a game ahead of Detroit, which lost 8-1 to the Baltimore Orioles, for the American League’s third and final wild-card spot. The Twins hold the tiebreaker over the Tigers.
Trevor Story had an RBI single for the Red Sox, who are 7-14 in their last 21 games and trail the Twins by five games with eight to play. They also trail the Tigers and Seattle.
Red Sox rookie right-hander Richard Fitts became the first in club history — and only the second in the majors since 1901 — to not allow an earned run over five or more innings in his first three major-league starts. He surrendered five hits with three strikeouts and a walk over five shutout innings.
Cincinnati left-handed pitcher Andrew Abbott is the other pitcher to start his career that way, having also failed to give up an earned run in his first three starts last season.
With runners on first and third and no outs, Larnach hit a high chop that clipped the top of the glove of the leaping 6-foot-6 Cooper Criswell (6-5) to score the go-ahead run. Wallner singled through a pulled infield and Willi Castro added a sacrifice fly.
Scott Blewett (1-0) worked the 11th inning for the win and Griffin Jax got the final three outs for his 10th save, despite giving up a run.
“That was incredibly impressive and gutsy, to say the least,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You feel it when you watch that game. We felt it the whole game in the dugout. It was a very intense, good game.”
The Red Sox struck out a club-record 20 batters and left 17 runners behind. The Twins left 15 behind.
“Plenty of opportunities,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We didn’t capitalize on them.”
Both teams left two runners behind in the 10th and 11th innings.
“It’s good to get back to winning,” said reliever Cole Sands, who struck out three in one inning after giving up a leadoff double. “All the bullpen guys did their job.”
The Twins (81-73) are just 11-20 since being 17 games above .500 on Aug. 17.
The 24-year-old Fitts was acquired in the offseason from the rival Yankees along with right-hander Greg Weissert and another minor-league pitcher in exchange for outfielder Alex Verdugo.
Story’s single gave Boston a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning against Minnesota starter David Festa.
The Twins tied the score in the seventh inning when Byron Buxton scored from third base on a fielder’s choice by Carlos Correa to Chris Martin on a ground ball that was not hit hard enough for an inning-ending double play.
Boston left the bases loaded against Jhoan Duran in the eighth inning when Ceddanne Rafaela hit a softy line drive to second base.
In his final inning, Fitts escaped a first-and-third, one-out situation by giving Jose Miranda a fielder’s choice before Carlos Santana hit the ball to right.
Festa allowed just one run and four hits, struck out six and walked three in five innings.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Red Sox: 3B Rafael Devers went off in extra innings. His shoulders have been bothering him for months. After that game, Cora said, “This is probably it for him” and that he’ll have an MRI of his right shoulder on Saturday. … Placed OF Rob Refsnyder on the 10-day injured list with a right forearm strain. … LF Jarren Duran bumped his right arm and shoulder into the Green Monster, made a leaping grab and was quickly checked by a team trainer but remained in the game.
NEXT
Twins RHP Pablo López (15-8, 3.84 ERA) plays Red Sox RHP Kutter Crawford (8-15, 4.19) on Saturday.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
By Ken Powtak, The Associated Press
