ST. LOUIS (AP) – Matt Wieters hit 14 foul balls during a 19-pitch at-bat that finished with a flyout during a wild rally that sent the St. Louis Cardinals over the Minnesota Twins 6-4 Tuesday night for a doubleheader split.
Josh Donaldson, Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sano all homered, leading the Twins to a 7-3 victory over the Cardinals in the first game. Cruz also homered in the second game to tie him for the MLB lead with 15.
The Twins led 2-0 in the third inning of the nightcap before combining two singles, three walks and two hitters to score five runs.
Wieters, hit by a pitch from Randy Dobnak (6-3) earlier in the inning, came up with two outs and the bases loaded against reliever Caleb Thielbar.
Wieters quickly fell behind 0-2 before eventually working the count full. He then fouled off nine straight pitches before flying out to center.
Genesis Cabrera (3-1) pitched one inning in relief to earn the win. Giovanny Gallegos earned his fourth save in as many chances by pitching 1 1/3 innings although he gave up a solo homer to Cruz in the seventh.
The Twins took a 2-0 lead on a two-run homer in the second by rookie Brent Rooker, the first of his career.
Jose Berrios (4-3) pitched into the sixth before being lifted to earn the win in the opener. He gave up three runs on four hits and struck out eight.
Donaldson hit a three-run drive into the left field bullpen to give the Twin a 3-0 lead in the third. He snapped an 0-for-8 rut with his third home run this season.
Carlos Martinez (0-2), who had missed more than a month while dealing with the coronavirus, was chased in the fourth.
It was just the second start of the season, both coming against Minnesota, for Martinez. He had not pitched since July 28 when the Twins roughed him up for seven hits and six runs in 3 1/3 innings.
Minnesota made it 5-0 when Cruz led off the fifth a home run. Cruz was in the lineup for the opener after sitting out a second straight day Monday with hip soreness.
The two-game series between Minnesota and St. Louis was condensed to one day so the Cardinals could have one more day off before the end of the season, with a backlog of makeup games this month.
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