A lot of things are taking care of themselves for the Twins these days. Harrison Bader and Kody Clemens homered, for example, and Ty France drove in two runs with a two-out single, just the latest contributions from the Twins’ not-quite-castoffs. The three, each of whom was acquired for a bargain price with low expectations, have combined to drive in 60 runs over the season’s first 51 games. Clemens’ ninth-inning double beat the Guardians on Wednesday, and France’s ninth-inning homer did in the Royals on Friday.
“We have a lot of confidence. If you don’t have confidence in yourself, you’ll get buried,” said Clemens, whose four home runs in a month include two that have given the Twins a lead and Saturday’s, which tied the game. “I’m not up there thinking I’m going to get one, but I know if I can put a good swing on it, the ball will carry.”
Even if it doesn’t look like it.
“That was like a 9-iron that he got under, but he also struck it really cleanly. [I’m] like, ‘Man, at that angle, is it going to go?’ ” Baldelli said of Clemens’ home run. “It didn’t just go, it went out by a long ways.”
Those runs came off Royals starter Michael Wacha, the veteran righthander who hadn’t allowed so much offense in his past eight starts. It didn’t appear he would Saturday, either, as he didn’t allow a Twin to reach second base in the first four innings while the Royals built him a 4-0 lead.
But Bader broke that spell with a blast into the left field seats to lead off the fifth inning. Wacha then hit Willi Castro with a pitch and gave up a one-out single to Christian Vázquez. With two out, France got behind 0-2 but eventually lined an opposite-field single down the right field line, scoring both runners and giving France the Twins’ RBI lead this season with 28.
