Joc Pederson struck out in the top of the third inning as the San Francisco Giants drop the first of three games to the Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis on Fri Aug 26, 2022 (AP News photo)

Monster Third Inning Pushes Minnesota Past San Francisco 9-0

By Barbara Mason

Friday night the San Francisco Giants (61-63) took on the Minnesota Twins (63-61) in a three game series at Target Field. The Giants are just coming off a disappointing split in their two game series with the Tigers earlier this week. The disappointment continued as the Giants dropped the first of the three game series to Twins 9-0.

The Twins got off to a great start in the first inning with a Carlos Correa home run scoring Kyle Garlick jumping off to a 2-0 lead.

The third inning was a disaster for the Giants. San Francisco loaded the bases twice in the inning. Giant pitcher Alex Wood hit two Twins at the plate and Minnesota went on a scoring frenzy. They scored six runs in the inning taking an 8-0 lead.

The Twins had their second home run of the evening off the bat of Gary Sanchez. Jose Miranda got the barrage underway with a sacrifice that brought Sandy Leon home. Gilberto Celestino doubled so deep to right center field that the Twins brought in three runners Garlick, Jorge Polanaco and Correa. Minnesota finished off the third with the Sanchez homer for a whopper of an inning.

Through five innings the Giants only had two hits but couldn’t get much else going. It would be an uphill battle for the remainder of the game. Wood left the game after the third with Zack Little pitching the fourth inning. Bay Area native Joe Ryan had a great showing in this game. He pitched six innings allowing only two hits, no runs and eight strikeouts.

The Twins would add insult to injury in the eighth inning when Garlick, who was having a banner game, hit a homer extending the Minnesota lead to 9-0 This was the Twins third home run of the game.

The Giants only had four hits but managed to hit into two double plays so not much went right for San Francisco in this one.

The Giants will try to regroup for tomorrow’s game with first pitch at 4:15 PM PT. They will send Alex Cobb 4-6 to the mound with a 3.99 ERA. Minnesota will start Sonny Gray with a 7-4 win/loss record and a 3.10 ERA.