PHILADELPHIA — From little-known
Drew Butera to MVP Joe Mauer, the Minnesota Twins got huge hits in
clutch situations.
Mauer hit a tying homer off Brad Lidge
to cap a five-run rally in the ninth inning and Delmon Young drove in
the go-ahead run in the 11th, sending Minnesota to a 13-10 victory over
the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.
Each team hit a dramatic homer when it
was down to its last out in a wild game that featured nine home runs
and 29 hits.
"We're known not to quit and we didn't
quit," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "A lot of great things
happened out there."
Pinch-hitter Jim Thome cracked a
two-run homer in the ninth off Phillies reliever Jose Contreras. Two
outs later, Mauer's two-run drive off Lidge tied it at 9.
Butera's first career home run, also a
pinch-hit shot, gave the Twins a 10-9 lead in the 10th, but
pinch-hitter Ross Gload hit a tying homer off closer Jon Rauch (2-1)
with two outs in the bottom half.
Mauer's one-out walk against Danys
Baez (2-3) got the Twins started in the 11th. Justin Morneau was
intentionally walked with a 2-0 count and Rauch advanced the runners
with a sacrifice. Young singled to deep shortstop to put the Twins ahead
11-10. Matt Tolbert followed with a two-run triple.
The AL Central-leading Twins snapped a
two-game skid. The Phillies had won three straight after going 6-15 and
falling into third place in the NL East.
Butera was batting .154 (6 for 39)
before he led off the 10th with a homer against Chad Durbin.
"When I hit it, I started running and
then I thought, 'Whoa, it has a chance,'" Butera said.
But Gload ripped a 3-1 pitch just
over the right-field wall to tie it. It was his third pinch-hit homer
this season.
Trailing 9-4 in the ninth, the Twins
came back against Contreras and Lidge. Thome's drive earned the former
Phillie a standing ovation and gave him 570 career home runs, breaking a
tie with Rafael Palmeiro for 11th place on the career list.
Thome has now homered against each of
the 30 major league teams.
After a walk, Lidge came in. He gave
up an RBI single to Denard Span before striking out Orlando Hudson for
the second out.
But Mauer, the reigning AL MVP,
connected for his third homer of the season to tie it at 9. Mauer had 28
home runs last year.
Lidge had been 4 for 4 in save
chances. He had a major league-high 11 blown saves last year after his
perfect season in 2008 helped the Phillies win the World Series.
"We've been feeling real good about
the way we've been pitching, but tonight we were just bad," Lidge said.
"We didn't do our job collectively, individually. We have to rebound
from it."
Ryan Howard, Wilson Valdez, Raul
Ibanez and Jayson Werth also went deep for Philadelphia.
Phillies starter Cole Hamels allowed
four runs – three earned – and five hits, striking out seven. The lanky
lefty settled in nicely after a shaky first and retired 13 straight
before Morneau led off the sixth with a homer.
The Phillies roughed up Kevin Slowey.
He allowed seven runs and seven hits in 1 2-3 innings – his shortest
career outing.
An offense that slumped badly during a
6-15 stretch has scored 32 runs in the last four games. The Phillies
averaged 2.4 runs during their previous 21 games.
"This is a tough one," manager
Charlie Manuel said. "But we've been there before and we've always come
back."
Valdez drove a 1-2 pitch just inside
the left-field foul pole to give the Phillies a 4-3 lead in the second.
It was his second career homer in 189 games. His other one came against
Kansas City on Sept. 26, 2004, with the Chicago White Sox.
Hamels followed with an infield
single and Placido Polanco hit a one-out double. Chase Utley's sacrifice
fly made it 5-3. Howard then hit a towering shot into the seats in
right-center for a 7-3 lead, ending Slowey's day.
NOTES: Phillies C Carlos Ruiz needed
more tests after getting hit in the head with a broken bat in the eighth
inning on Friday night. Ruiz doesn't have a concussion, the team said.
Manuel said Ruiz might return Tuesday or Wednesday. … The last time
the Twins had two pinch-hit homers in a game was May 16, 1983. … A
crowd of 45,254 was the 73rd straight sellout at Citizens Bank Park.