{"id":272219,"date":"2023-05-11T09:01:33","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T14:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=272219"},"modified":"2023-05-11T09:01:34","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T14:01:34","slug":"alex-kirilloff-makes-the-most-with-walk-off-knock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=272219","title":{"rendered":"Alex Kirilloff Makes The Most With Walk-off Knock\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Minneapolis, MN — If the Twins had stuck to their original plan,\u00a0Alex Kirilloff<\/a>\u00a0might not even have been at Target Field on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve got to be pretty glad they changed their minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just four games into his return to the Major League roster, Kirilloff provided the clutch hit this lineup desperately needed, knocking his first career walk-off single in the 11th inning that gave the Twins a\u00a04-3 victory over the Padres<\/a>. The win snapped a three-game losing streak and helped cash in yet another stingy effort from the entire pitching staff — many of which have gone to waste of late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t have much fear,\u201d manager Rocco Baldelli said. \u201cHe goes up there in big spots and just looks for a pitch that he thinks he can handle, and simplifies it. That was big for us. We needed someone to just come up and just make it happen, and he did that today. It was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Griffin Jax escaped a bases-loaded jam in the 11th inning against the heart of the San Diego lineup, and after the Padres issued an intentional walk to Carlos Correa in the bottom of the frame, Kirilloff roped a 2-0 fastball from reliever Domingo Tapia down the right-field line, scoring Max Kepler for the Twins\u2019 third walk-off win of \u201823.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the third inning, the Twins\u2019 offense couldn\u2019t even get a player to second base until the rulebook did the job for them in extra innings. But at last, that\u2019s when the clutch hits started to fall, starting with Donovan Solano\u2019s game-tying single off Josh Hader in the bottom of the 10th, and ending with Kirilloff\u2019s winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s definitely a cool feeling, but obviously, the most important thing is playing good baseball and putting together winning games,\u201d Kirilloff said. \u201cWe had a lot of good things going for us today — good offense, some good at-bats, really good pitching and good defense as well. That’s a good recipe to keep stacking and winning games.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the Twins originally left Kirilloff in Triple-A following the completion of his rehab assignment on April 30 due to a perceived lack of playing time with the big club, they made a snap decision to take advantage of an opportunity to call him up early and created that playing time by making a tough decision to send down Trevor Larnach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, Kirilloff has taken some of the best plate appearances on the team — and that\u2019s what the Twins expect when he\u2019s healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since his return, he\u2019s 3-for-9 with five walks and only one strikeout — and whether he\u2019s facing a fastball on the hands like Tapia\u2019s offering in the 11th or a curveball well below the zone from Padres starter Seth Lugo in the third, Kirilloff\u2019s flatter swing and instinct for getting the barrel to the ball helps him do damage to all fields when he\u2019s at his best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think he brings a different flavor to our lineup just because of the pitches that he can hit and the way he approaches at-bats,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cThe pitches he can do damage on, the pitches that he can spray to different parts of the field. \u2026 If the pitcher pitches him in different ways, he can find ways to get the barrel to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This version of Kirilloff — confident, patient, driving the ball with authority — has been a rare sight at the game\u2019s highest level as he\u2019s dealt with the recurring wrist issues that led to two season-ending surgeries in two years after he tried and failed to play through the pain each time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This hitter might well be the presence the Twins have been lacking as their lineup has started pressing amid its recent struggles, expanding the zone and leading to the third-highest strikeout rate in baseball entering Wednesday. Kirilloff has reached base multiple times in each of his three starts — and that\u2019s not to mention the diving catch against Juan Soto — just one of the Twins’ impressive defensive plays<\/a> — to start an unassisted double play at first base to end the fourth inning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in a long while, the wrist isn\u2019t the story with Kirilloff — and they\u2019ve needed his jolt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels good to feel healthy and be back here and playing ball,\u201d Kirilloff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minneapolis, MN — If the Twins had stuck to their original plan,\u00a0Alex Kirilloff\u00a0might not even have been at Target Field on Wednesday night. They\u2019ve got to be pretty glad they changed their minds. Just four games into his return to the Major League roster, Kirilloff provided the clutch hit this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":272220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=272219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272221,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272219\/revisions\/272221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/272220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=272219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=272219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=272219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}