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Major League Baseball
Minnesota 5, Cincinnati 3
When: 12:35 PM ET, Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Where: Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati, Ohio
Temperature: 78°
Umpires: Home - Ryan Blakney, 1B - Jacob Metz, 2B - Marvin Hudson, 3B - Alex Tosi
Attendance: 22306

Jorge Polanco hit a two-out, two-run single in the top of the top of the ninth inning to rally the Minnesota Twins to a 5-3 victory over the host Cincinnati Reds in the deciding game of a three-game series Wednesday afternoon.

Willi Castro homered and had two hits and two runs scored, Christian Vazquez had a double among his two hits. The win by Minnesota (81-72) -- coupled with Cleveland's loss to Kansas City on Wednesday -- lowered the Twins' magic number for clinching the American League Central to one.

Jhoan Duran (3-6) picked up the win with a scoreless eighth inning and Griffin Jax pitched around a leadoff walk in the ninth to notch his third save.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand hit a home run and Will Benson tripled and scored twice for Cincinnati (79-75), which wasted a 14-strikeout effort by starter Hunter Greene.

Greene, who allowed one run on three hits over seven innings, reached a career high in strikeouts. He walked one, hit a batter and left after throwing 92 pitches, 63 for strikes. His 14 strikeouts were the most by a Reds pitcher since Ron Villone struck out 16 against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sept. 29, 2000.

Trailing 3-2 entering the ninth inning, Minnesota rallied for three runs against Cincinnati's All-Star closer Alexis Diaz (9-5).

Castro led off with a bunt single, stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Luke Maile, then scored on a single by Kyle Farmer to tie the game 3-3.

One out later, Vazquez walked and Sam Moll replaced Diaz. After Farmer and Vazquez executed a double-steal, Ryan Jeffers was walked intentionally to load the bases. Polanco singled to right to drive in Farmer and Vazquez.

Cincinnati took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Benson led off with a walk, Jonathan India was hit by a pitch and TJ Freidl singled to score Benson.

The Reds extended the lead to 2-0 in the fourth inning when Encarnacion-Strand led off with his ninth homer of the season, a 393-foot drive into the left field bleachers.

Minnesota cut the lead to 2-1 in the seventh on Castro's ninth home run. But the Reds answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning to increase their lead to 3-1 when Benson led off with a triple to right-center and scored on a single by Maile.

The Twins closed to 3-2 in the eighth inning against reliever Ian Gibaut. Vazquez led off with a double into the right-field corner and scored one out later on a single by Edouard Julien.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Minnesota   Cincinnati
Bailey Ober Player Hunter Greene
No Decision W/L No Decision
5.0 IP 7.0
3 Strikeouts 14
3 Hits 3
3.60 ERA 1.29
Hitting
Minnesota   Cincinnati
Christian Vazquez Player Christian Encarnacion-Strand
2 Hits 1
0 RBI 1
0 HR 1
3 TB 4
.667 Avg .333
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Minnesota 9 1 14 .265 16 15 5 3 3 0
Cincinnati 6 1 11 .182 21 8 3 5 0 1