Twins beat Rays, 6-5, on walk-off bunt

Jerry Zgoda, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jul 5, 2025

Published in Baseball

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MINNEAPOLIS — On Friday at Target Field, Twins outfielder Harrison Bader hit a walk-off home run to beat Tampa Bay, 4-3.

On Saturday at Target Field, Brooks Lee won it 6-5 with a walk-off push bunt that never got to first base.

His bunt that wobbled down the foul line drove in Byron Buxton in a ninth inning when the Twins got their first three batters on base.

Both games were comeback victories. They produced the Twins’ first series win since June.

The Twins reached the bottom of the ninth after the Rays, with two chances, left a runner at third base in their half of the ninth. Twins reliever Jhoan Duran struck out Yandy Diaz and got Junior Caminero to fly out to end the inning.

The Twins led 1-0 after two innings, trailed 5-1 in the top of the sixth and then got it all back with a four-run sixth inning in which first baseman Kody Clemens’ two-out, three-run homer drove in Ryan Jeffers and Royce Lewis.

Travis Adams made his major league debut in the third inning after Cole Sands started the game with one inning and Danny Coulombe pitched his one inning. Adams had been called up from Class AAA St. Paul, where he had pitched 19 times, with five starts.

He pitched four innings, giving up nine hits and five runs, all earned. Adams struck out one and walked none.

The Twins and Rays swapped single runs early, Carlos Correa scoring the game’s first one to start his team’s second inning before the Rays answered with a run of their own in the third.

The Twins were poised to score more in that second inning. They loaded the bases with no outs after Correa singled to start the inning. But they couldn’t get another run over, not after Clemens struck out, Bader ground into a force out and Buxton flied out to end the inning.

Jeffers’ bloop single into shallow left field followed Correa’s leadoff hit. Jeffers’ single fell between three different Rays and ended what had been an 0-for-20 streak.