The 30-year-old rookie sensation knocked in four runs, including the eventual game-winner with a two-run single in the top of the 12th inning as the Minnesota Twins beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-4. Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Chris Colabello story just keeps getting better. On Wednesday, it became historic.
The 30-year-old rookie sensation knocked in four runs, including the eventual game-winner with a two-run single in the top of the 12th inning as the Minnesota Twins beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-4 at Tropicana Field. In the process, Colabello tied Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett for the franchise record for most RBIs in a month (26) with six games remaining. Oh, and he blasted his third homer of the year as his mother, Silvana, celebrating her birthday, was being interviewed on live television.
“It’s quite an honor. You start getting mentioned with names like that, you start to realize how special the game is, how special the opportunity to be here is,” said Colabello, who was undrafted out of high school, played seven seasons in Italy and didn’t play affiliated baseball domestically until 2012.
Colabello’s single off reliever Josh Lueke (0-1) scored Joe Mauer, who had led off with a single and took second on a Trevor Plouffe double. Colabello leads the American League in RBIs and is among the top 10 in several other categories.
“I was battling,” Colabello said. “I didn’t hit a screamer, but I was lucky enough for it to get through.”
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire continued to marvel at the Twins’ surprise find.
“What a month,” he said. “It’s a good story. We’ll see how long he can keep it going.”
Glen Perkins earned his fourth save. Reliever Casey Fien pitched 2 1/3 innings to improve to 3-0.
Tampa Bay fell to 10-11 in the 4:48 affair. Minnesota improved to 10-10 and can take the three-game series with a win Thursday.
“I went to the go-to, tried to strike him out,” Lueke said of Colabello’s at-bat. “It was a pretty good situation for that, and he ended up hitting it right back up through the middle.”
Minnesota scored four times in the fourth for a 4-2 lead, chasing Rays starter Jake Odorizzi. Colabello tied the game, 2-2, with his third homer of the year, scoring Plouffe, who led off with a walk. Odorizzi then allowed consecutive singles to Jason Kubel and Josmil Pinto and walked Chris Hermann to load the bases before Eduardo Escobar knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly and Sam Fuld singled off reliever Brandon Gomes for a 4-2 lead.
Odorizzi was charged with four earned runs on five hits in 3 1/3 innings with three walks and five strikeouts.
“We’ve lost two games here in this homestead that we could’ve put in the win column, and those are the kinds of things you really have to get beyond. The guys have been great. The intensity is wonderful,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “We’ve just got to figure out how to push through it somehow.”
Matt Joyce had given the Rays a 2-0 lead with an RBI groundout in the first and a sacrifice flyout in the third.
Tampa Bay trimmed the deficit to 4-3 in the fifth on an Evan Longoria infield single. Desmond Jennings cued the rally with a two-out single and took third on a Joyce double. The Rays tied the game, 4-4 in the sixth by loading the bases on a single, hit batter, walks and getting sacrifice flyout by Ben Zobrist against reliever Caleb Thielbar.
Twins starter Mike Pelfrey allowed three earned runs on six hits and three walks in five-plus innings.
NOTES: Rays manager Joe Maddon said MLB could rectify the erroneous strikeout it acknowledged to SS Yunel Escobar on Tuesday by changing his statistics to reflect a walk, which he rightly earned. … Twins 1B Joe Mauer is striking out 27 percent of the time. … DH Chris Colabello extended his hit streak to eight games with a fourth-inning home run.
