SAN FRANCISCO—Carlos Santana homered to break a sixth-inning tie—a shot down the left-field line that survived a review to give him home runs in all 30 current major league ballparks—and the Minnesota Twins beat the San Francisco Giants 4–2 on Saturday night.
The 38-year-old Santana hit the solo shot off Taylor Rodgers (1–3) for his 13th of the season and 314th overall. He also singled and walked twice.
Santana, who joined the Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton and the Padres’ Manny Machado as the only active players to homer in all 30 current stadiums, said he was “blessed” to achieve the feat. Santana said a lot of players are “scared” to hit at Oracle Park because of its bigger, pitcher-friendly dimensions, but Santana called it a “great ballpark.”
“God gave me all the opportunities in my career and I’ve played a long time—15 years,” Santana said. “It’s very important for me and my family. It’s great. I thank God every day for giving me the opportunity to be healthy and play hard.”
The Twins added a run in the ninth on Ryan Jeffers’ double-play grounder. They have won five of seven, while the Giants have lost five of seven.
Cole Sands (4–1) got the victory, pitching a scoreless 1 2/3 innings after starter Simeon Woods Richardson allowed two runs in 4 2/3 innings. Jhoan Duran finished for his 15th save.
Minnesota was without several key bats in Carlos Correa, José Miranda and Byron Buxton, who were all injured. Christian Vázquez made his first career start at third base.
“It doesn’t matter who’s on that field,” Richardson said. “We trust all of our guys. We have the extreme depth in our lineup to do anything. We’re very versatile.”
Minnesota scored twice on one hit in the fifth inning. Matt Wallner hit an RBI double following a leadoff hit-by-pitch, advanced to third on an error by right fielder Mike Yastrzemski and scored on Patrick Bailey’s passed ball.
Giants starter Hayden Birdsong allowed one earned run in five innings in his fourth career start.
The 22-year-old is getting opportunities with the several starters such as Alex Cobb and Robbie Ray out.
Manager Bob Melvin said whether Birdsong stays with the big club depends on timing of when other pitchers get healthy, but that he seems increasingly comfortable with each outing.
“There was a need for us,” Melvin said. “I’ve said often he’s only had a couple of starts in Triple-A and he’s come up here and performed pretty well for us. We have big expectations for him down the road. We’ll see how it works out when we start getting some guys back.”
