Carlos Santana broke a sixth-inning tie with a home run and the Minnesota Twins won a battle of bullpens for a 4-2 victory over the host San Francisco Giants on Saturday afternoon.
Santana’s homer, his 13th of the season, came off the Giants’ second pitcher, Taylor Rogers (1-3), after a pair of rookie right-handed starters had left the game in a 2-2 tie through five innings.
Cole Sands (4-1), who got the final two outs of the San Francisco fifth, Jorge Alcala, Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran limited the Giants to one hit and no runs after Santana’s blast, allowing the Twins to draw even in the three-game series after a 7-1 defeat on Friday.
The only hit allowed by the Minnesota bullpen was a two-out triple by Patrick Bailey in the eighth with the Giants trailing 3-2. But Jax got Matt Chapman to fly to right to nd the threat.
The Twins tacked on in the ninth on consecutive singles by Christian Vazquez, Willi Castro and Trevor Larnach, setting up a run-producing, double-play grounder by Ryan Jeffers.
Comforted by a two-run lead, Duran worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 15th save.
The Twins scored first against Giants starter Hayden Birdsong when sloppy play by San Francisco contributed to a pair of fourth-inning runs.
Jeffers, who had been hit by a pitch, scored on a Matt Wallner double to right field. Wallner was able to reach third on the hit after an errant throw by Mike Yastrzemski, then dashed home on a passed ball by Bailey.
Those were the only runs (one unearned) scored off Birdsong in five innings, during which he allowed two hits and three walks while striking out three.
The Giants drew even against Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson with single runs in the fourth and fifth. Yastrzemski’s two-out infield single scored Michael Conforto in the fourth, before a Jorge Soler double and Heliot Ramos RBI single squared things at 2-2 in the fifth.
Woods Richardson made it through just 4 1/3 innings, charged with two runs on seven hits. He walked one and struck out seven.
Santana, who went 2-for-2 with two walks, joined Castro and Max Kepler with two hits apiece for the Twins, who improved to 3-2 on their six-game trip.
Bailey and Yastrzemski collected two hits apiece for the Giants, who have lost five of their last seven.