Twins, Down by Six, Rally for 10-7 Victory

Matt Lawton hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 10-7, Wednesday night at Minneapolis.

Lawton was so sure the bunt sign would be on that he didn’t want to look at third-base coach Ron Gardenhire, but to his delight he was wrong.

“I felt good at the plate. I said, ‘Hopefully I’m not bunting,’ ” said Lawton, whose homer capped a comeback that began with the Twins down 7-1 with only six outs to go.

It was the 11th time in franchise history that the Twins overcame a six-run deficit.

Before the homer, White and catcher John Flaherty met on the mound to discuss strategy while Lawton chatted with home plate umpire Al Clark, who, according to Lawton, asked him if he was going to bunt.

“And I said, ‘Man, I sure hope I’m not,’ ” Lawton said. “He was like, ‘Do you think you can win it?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’m going to win it.’ He’s like, ‘All right, if you get to swing, hopefully something good happens.’ We had a nice conversation.”

Fewer than than half of the crowd of just over 7,000 was still around to witness the upper-deck shot.

Oakland 8, Detroit 2--The Athletics have five players who hit more than 20 homers last season, but after three games 5-foot-9 Frank Menechino is their leading slugger. Menechino, playing in place of the injured Randy Velarde, hit his second homer in three games and added a run-scoring groundout in a three-run third as the A’s beat the Tigers at Oakland.

Menechino, who spent seven seasons in the minors before making his major league debut with the A’s last September, is tied with Jason Giambi for the team lead in homers and tops the A’s with a 1.100 slugging percentage.

Chicago 12, Texas 8--Reliever Sean Lowe worked out a fifth-inning jam, and Chris Singleton began a five-run ninth inning with a tiebreaking homer as the White Sox beat the Rangers at Arlington, Texas.

Lowe took over in the fifth after starter Jim Parque gave up five runs, turning a 7-1 Chicago lead into a close game. The first two batters reached, then Lowe got a strikeout and a double play. He struck out the side in the sixth.

Kansas City 4, Toronto 3--Ricky Bottalico earned his first save and Joe Randa homered twice as the Royals won at Toronto.

Last season, the Royals were the first major league team to have more blown saves (30) than saves (29).

Bottalico, signed during the off-season to remedy that problem, gave up a leadoff homer to Tony Batista in the ninth. But after Jose Cruz Jr. walked with one out, stole second and took third when catcher Brian Johnson’s throw bounced into center field for an error, Alex Gonzalez grounded to third and Cruz got tagged out in a rundown as Gonzalez took second. Darrin Fletcher grounded to first, ending the game.

Seattle 9, Boston 3--Jay Buhner hit a homer and drove in four runs at Seattle as the Mariners bounced back from a season-opening loss to Pedro Martinez.

Freddy Garcia, runner-up in AL rookie of the year voting last season, allowed two runs and two hits in five innings.