Carlos Santana's 3-run homer leads Twins over Rangers, 4-3

The Minnesota Twins were able to escape a few jams but pulled through in Texas Friday night, defeating the Rangers 4 to 3 and taking the second game of a four-game series.

The Twins' Manuel Margot made history this season to lead off the game, drawing 16 pitches off Rangers starter Andrew Heaney before he flew out to left field.

It's the most pitches seen in a single at-bat this season, surpassing the Philadelphia Phillies' Nick Castellanos and his 15-pitch appearance on Aug. 4. It's also the longest at-bat since the Milwaukee Brewers' Pat Listach's 17-pitch walk on Sept. 26, 1992, the second-longest leadoff plate appearance since pitch counts began begin tracked in 1988, according to MLB.com.

After the Rangers took an early one-run lead, catcher Ryan Jeffers hit his 18th home run of the season with a No. 2 pencil bat in the top of the third inning as "Players Weekend" kicked off Friday night.

Former Twins pitcher LaTroy Hawkins had the call of the night, saying: "Jeffers definitely didn't hit that one off the eraser. He hit that one off the No. 2 sign."

First baseman Carlos Santana added a three-run home run — also his 18th of the year — in the fifth inning to make it a 4 to 1 game.

Heaney had been dealing besides the two homers surrendered, as he struck out 8 Twins in 4.1 innings of work while giving up 5 hits and a walk.

Adolis García had two long-driven balls to left center in the game that ended up being caught, but he still made his mark on defense. After Matt Festa entered the game following Santana's home run, Royce Lewis sent a ball deep that would've been a homer if the All-Star right-fielder didn't pull it back into play.

Twins starter Simeon Woods-Richardson pitched 5 innings, allowing 2 runs, 3 hits, 2 walks and striking out one. He earned his fourth win of the season in the effort.

The Rangers picked up one run each in the of the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings but the Twins bullpen was able to work itself out of jams, despite southpaw Caleb Thielbar giving up a run in 0.2 innings of work.

Cole Sands, Steven Okert, Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran combined to work 3.1 innings, allowing one hit, no walks and striking out 6 Rangers.

The Kansas City Royals defeated the Cincinnati Reds and the Cleveland Guardians lost to the Milwaukee Brewers Friday night. That means with the win, the Twins are now 3 games back of first-place Cleveland and the Royals are 5 games back of Cleveland.

The Twins and Rangers will do it again Saturday night with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m. CT. Minnesota will send rookie David Festa (2-2, 5.20 ERA) to the mound while Texas sends Nathan Eovaldi (8-6, 3.75 ERA) to face the Twins.