Red-hot Luke Keaschall hits walkoff homer to lead Twins over Royals in 11

What can’t Luke Keaschall do? And secondly, what could the Twins’ season have looked like if he had never gotten hit by a pitch and fractured his forearm back in April?

After missing over three months, Keaschall has picked up right where he left off since returning to the Twins’ lineup this week. The No. 3 prospect in the organization had three more hits on Sunday, punctuated by a two-run walkoff homer to lead Minnesota to a 5-3, 11-inning win over the Royals in the rubber match of the series.

Keaschall is 10 for 22 with three doubles and two homers in five games since being activated. He’s reached base in each of his first 12 MLB games, with an 11-game hitting streak to begin his career that’s now two away from tying the Twins’ franchise record. His season OPS is over 1.200. Keaschall, who turns 23 next week, has gone from promising prospect to impact big leaguer very quickly.

An incredible two-inning outing from Michael Tonkin set the stage for the walkoff. Tonkin got the ball in the top of the 10th inning and kept the automatic runner from scoring. Then he did the same thing in the 11th, punctuated by a strikeout of Salvador Perez.

A baserunning mistake from Austin Martin threatened to derail the Twins’ half of the 11th. Martin was late to tag at second base on a Ryan Jeffers flyout and was thrown out at third for a double play. But Keaschall didn’t care. He stepped up and hit a well-located fastball from Royals closer Carlos Estevez over the wall in right-center field to launch the Twins into celebration.

The Twins are now 56-61. They’ve gone 5-4 since their stunning trade deadline fire sale, including consecutive series wins over division rivals. Keaschall is a big reason why.

This day was also one that Ryan Fitzgerald will never forget. One of the Twins’ post-deadline callups from Triple-A, Fitzgerald had gone eight games without a single plate appearance until he got the start at third base on Sunday. And in his first at-bat, the 31-year-old longtime minor leaguer drilled a two-run homer for his first MLB hit. It was quite the moment for Fitzgerald, who has played in over 700 games in the minors. He would go on to add another hit later and make an impressive catch in foul territory.

Twins starter Jose Ureña gave up a run in a first inning that could’ve been much worse. Ureña labored through three innings before giving way to Kody Funderburk and then Pierson Ohl, who pitched well. After Fitzgerald’s homer, the Twins led 2-1 until Vinnie Pasquantino hit a go-ahead two-run homer off of Cole Sands in the top of the seventh.

The Twins were able to respond. Royals outfielder John Rave’s misplay in the eighth turned into a triple for Martin, and Jeffers drove him in with a clutch two-out single to tie the game at three. Justin Topa then escaped with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth. The Twins failed to walk it off in the ninth and tenth innings, but Tonkin got the game to the bottom of the 11th still tied at 3-3, and Keaschall did the rest.

What a win. Next up for the Twins is a road series against the Yankees starting on Monday.