The Minnesota Twins‘ game on Thursday took a turn about as large as you will ever see in Major League Baseball.
After six innings, the Twins were getting no-hit by Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Noah Cameron. After nine innings, they were celebrating something called an “ultimate grand slam,” which is a walk-off grand slam to erase a three-run deficit, off the bat of Kody Clemens.
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They have been only 34 ultimate grand slams in MLB history. Per MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, none of the first 33 came from a team that was getting no-hit through six innings.
It was also only the 15th ultimate grand slam with two outs (an ultimate ultimate grand slam), which is more rare than a perfect game. And Clemens was down 0-2 when wood hit ball, making this rarer still. We’re basically talking about the kind of home run that 7-year-olds fantasize about while hitting in their backyard.
Cameron allowed his first hit to Ryan Jeffers to lead off the seventh inning, triggering a cheer from a Target Field crowd that had no idea of what was to come. Jeffers took a high changeup and hit dropped an easy single into right-center field.
Cameron remained in the game, however, and finished off two more innings. His infal line was 8 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 2 walks and 7 strikeouts, the best start of the second-year pitcher’s career.
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It should have been enough for a win. The Royals opted to pull the left-hander at 97 pitches after the eighth inning and turned to Lucas Erceg for the save situation. Erceg got the first two outs with a strikeout of Trevor Larnach and a lineout by Victor Caratini, and then everything went wrong for Kansas City.
Erceg hit Jeffers with a second-pitch sinker, allowed a single to Royce Lewis and walked Josh Bell to load the bases. Manager Matt Quatraro pulled him in favor of southpaw Matt Strahm, who had the platoon advantage against the left-handed Clemens.
Strahm has struggled heavily this year, but he’s still been decently effective against lefties, who entered Thursday slashing .235/.264/.353. He snuck in a low sinker for a called strike 1, then challenged Clemens higher in the zone for a foul ball and strike 2. And then, well…
It’s the most thrilling win of the season for the Twins, who have been one of MLB’s more surprising teams this season just by playing .500 ball. Their win over the Royals improves their record to 55-55, only three games back from the Chicago White Sox for first place in the AL Central and one game back from the Cleveland Guardians for the final AL wild-card spot.
