Harrison Bader homers twice to surge the Twins past Tampa Bay
Ha-Seong Kim made his much-anticipated season debut this afternoon, as he singled and stole a base before a calf cramp ended his Independence Day in the seventh inning.
In the top of the fourth, Brandon Lowe extended his hitting streak to 19 games, with a chance to tie Yandy Diaz’s 20-gamer from 2023 tomorrow.
In the bottom of the fifth, Harrison Bader homered to start the scoring. The 412-foot blast to left put the Twins up 1-0.
In the top of the sixth, Yandy Diaz doubled to right field to score Josh Lowe and knot the score at 1.
A Yandy double does it! pic.twitter.com/PctMUAowSI
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) July 4, 2025
Junior Caminero would single in Diaz to put Tampa Bay up 2-1.
In the top of the seventh, Lowe drove in Chandler Simpson in with an RBI single for the 3-1 lead.
In the bottom of the seventh, Byron Buxton got an RBI single and Garrett Cleavinger hit Brooks Lee to knot the score at 3.
In the bottom of the ninth, it took Bader one pitch to end the contest as he homered to left again, this time off Kevin Kelly as the Twins provided the fireworks on Independence Day 4-3.