Miguel Sano homered, longtime Twins minor leaguer James Beresford got his first career hit, and Joe Mauer hit a walk-off single in Minnesota’s 2-1 win over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday night.
“If you can win a close game at home against a good team,” manager Paul Molitor told the Star Tribune, “you’ve got to feel pretty good about that.”
Hector Santiago gave up a run in the 1st inning, but settled in and pitched 7.0 innings.
“From the third inning on I kind of felt like I was in control,” Santiago told the Associated Press.
Beresford got his first hit in the 7th inning, earning a round of applause from the Target Field faithful that showed up last night.
“It got me going a little bit. You saw the reaction of our dugout. The fans that continue to come out kind of know the story and they responded,” Molitor told the Star Tribune. “It means a lot to a lot of people when a guy gets rewarded. Jimmy, you can see how much it means to him to be out there and contributing.”
But while the youth came through most of the night — Sano’s home run, Beresford’s hit and Max Kepler’s diving catch — it was a veteran, Mauer, who finished things off. It was his first walk-off hit since 2007.
“I don’t really remember it at all, to be honest,” Mauer told the Pioneer Press when asked about his walk-off in ’07. “It would be interesting to see how many chances I’ve had. I don’t really get too many chances to do that, so that was pretty fun tonight to be able to come through in one of them.”
[Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Associated Press]
