Keaschall, Lee and Jenkins supply the damage as Twins edge Giants 3-2 at Oracle Park

An early Giants edge, and two starters doing enough

San Francisco had the first opening on the scoreboard and, for a while, the cleaner offensive profile. Drew Cavanaugh’s sacrifice bunt in the second brought Shay Whitcomb home for a 1-0 lead, with Scott Bandura moving to second. It was not a loud inning, but it fit the Giants’ night: they kept putting people on base, asking Minnesota’s pitchers to keep solving traffic.

Anthony Molina answered that kind of game with a strong six innings. The Giants right-hander allowed four hits, two runs, walked one and struck out six in 85 pitches. That is usually the line that gives a club a chance to control the evening, and for long stretches he did exactly that. Taj Bradley was effective too, even if his route looked busier. Bradley gave the Twins six innings, three hits, one run, three walks and six strikeouts over 104 pitches, surviving the kind of workload that can tilt either way if one more ball finds a gap.

What kept the Giants from turning that early lead into something sturdier was the familiar problem hidden inside their team totals. They drew six walks, added a hit batter, stole two bases and still went into the late innings with only one run. The traffic was real. The payoff was not. Against a staff that eventually issued six walks and needed 169 pitches to finish nine innings, San Francisco left too many openings unused.

The sixth inning turned six equal hits into an uneven scoreboard

The game’s decisive swing started with Ryan Kreidler coming home on Luke Keaschall’s triple to center in the sixth. That erased the Giants’ lead, but the inning did not stop there. Brooks Lee followed with a single to right, scoring Keaschall and pushing Minnesota ahead 2-1. In the span of two batters, the Twins changed the entire shape of the night.

That sequence mattered because Minnesota did not spend the game piling up chances. The Twins drew only one walk, struck out seven times and finished with six runners left on base. But their six hits carried more weight than San Francisco’s six because they produced 11 total bases. Keaschall’s triple and Lee’s run-scoring single created a lead out of a modest amount of offense, and Lee’s 2-for-4 line stood out as the game’s only multi-hit performance.

There is a blunt lesson in that inning. The Giants’ staff was efficient almost everywhere else, allowing only one walk all night, and Molina kept the ballpark quiet for six frames. Yet one extra-base hit and one quick follow-up single were enough to undo the early advantage. In a low-scoring game, the cost of even a short burst can feel outsized, and the sixth was that burst.

Jenkins’ insurance lasted, barely

Minnesota added what became the winning run in the seventh when Walker Jenkins homered to right, measured at 361 feet. It was the Twins’ only home run of the game, and it gave them the small cushion they would need. Jenkins finished 1-for-4 with a run and an RBI, but that one swing separated a tie game from a night in which San Francisco had to keep chasing.

The Giants did make one final push. In the ninth, Jonah Cox grounded into a fielder’s choice to third that brought Brett Harris home, trimming the deficit to 3-2 while Osleivis Basabe advanced to second and Andrew Knizner to third. Minnesota’s last inning was not clean, and that is worth noting. Jeff Hoffman allowed no hits in the frame, but two walks and a run turned a manageable close into a nervy finish.

San Francisco’s frustration is easy to locate in the final line. Six hits, six walks, one hit batter and still only two runs. No Giant recorded an extra-base hit. No Giant had more than one hit. Cox and Cavanaugh each produced an RBI, Whitcomb and Harris scored the runs, and the club created enough traffic to threaten all night, but not enough force to flip the result.

Our take: Minnesota’s damage was sharper, and San Francisco’s margin for waste was too small

This was a game where the scoreboard punishes one team for leaving chances half-finished and rewards the other for making its few hard enough to count twice. Minnesota did not overwhelm anybody. The Twins posted a .219 on-base percentage for the game and managed only one walk. But when they connected, the contact changed innings: Keaschall’s triple reset the game, Lee’s single completed the turn, and Jenkins’ homer protected it.

For the Giants, the place to improve is not mysterious, even if the exact fix is never simple. A lineup that draws six walks and still leaves 15 on base needs more from its at-bats after traffic has already been created. The absence of any doubles, triples or home runs made every rally depend on stringing together several small events, and that is a narrow way to live for nine innings.

For the Twins, the result is positive but not spotless. Their bullpen finished the job, yet the staff’s six walks and 169 total pitches kept San Francisco in reach until the last out. A cleaner finish would make games like this feel less fragile. Still, the broader story belongs to Minnesota’s timely offense and Bradley’s six solid innings. On a night when both teams collected the same number of hits, the Twins made theirs mean more.

Scoring moments

1. 2nd Inning

   Cavanaugh hit sacrifice bunt to third, Whitcomb scored, Bandura to second.

2. 6th Inning

   Keaschall tripled to center, Kreidler scored.

3. 6th Inning

   Lee singled to right, Keaschall scored.

4. 7th Inning

   Jenkins homered to right (361 feet).

5. 9th Inning

   Cox grounded into fielder's choice to third, B. Harris scored, Basabe to second, Knizner to third.