MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits in Week-13
6. Nelson Cruz, 46 percent
The Minnesota Twins lead the AL Central; the Tampa Bay Rays are solidly in the wild card fight. So their three-game mid-week series in Minneapolis, in which the Twins won twice, was vital to both clubs.
The series turned in the seventh inning of Wednesday’s second game. The Twins had won the first one 9-4, and they had grabbed a quick 3-0 first inning lead on Rays starter Charlie Morton.
But Tampa rallied to take a 4-3 lead entering the bottom of the seventh thanks in part to Willy Adames’ go-ahead home run in the top of that inning. Adames’ homer lifted Tampa’s chances of the evening the series to 66 percent.
But Jason Castro touched Morton for a base hit to start the bottom of the seventh, and when Ji-Man Choi dropped Brandon Lowe’s throw on Jake Cave’s infield grounder, Minnesota had runners at first and second with none out.
Morton fanned Jonathan Schoop before managed Kevin Cash lifted him in favor of Colin Poche. He surrendered a base hit to Luis Arraez that filled the bases but retired Jorge Polanco on an infield pop before he too was lifted, this time for Emilio Pagan.
Pagan quickly worked the count on Nelson Cruz to 0-2, then caught too much of the plate with his third pitch. Cruz turned it around into the gap in left-center for a double that sent all three runners across.
Prior to that 0-2 pitch, Minnesota’s chances of overcoming the one-run deficit were just 42 percent. Cruz improved them to 88 percent and following two innings of solid Twins bullpen work Minnesota had its 6-4 victory.