When the Nationals needed an outfielder to pinch hit with a runner on second, they sent for Alex Call.
It was only the second inning, and he was facing Twins ace Joe Ryan — with an 0-2 count after center fielder Jacob Young was hit in the right index trying to bunt.
“Oh-and-2, that’s, you know, the worst count,” Call deadpanned afterward.
It didn’t matter. Call singled in the game’s first run, loaded the bases when he reached on an error — all three runners scored — and hit a home run in the seventh as Washington beat the Twins, 9-3, in front of 26,928 on a muggy night at Target Field.
“I kinda thrive in that situation,” said Call, who was born in Burnsville and grew up a Twins fan in River Falls, Wis. “I’m like, ‘All right, time to go into battle mode,’ which is where I feel comfortable, and I was able to come through.”
Call was 2 for 4 with two RBIs and two runs scored in just his second trip to Target Field as a player.
“I’m playing in a park that I grew up going to, first the Metrodome, then Target Field,” he said. “I’ve just got a lot of good memories watching Torii Hunter and Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Johan Santana and all the Twins greats. Just fun to come back and play.”
Minnesota Twins center fielder Byron Buxton (25) catches a fly out hit by Washington Nationals’ Luis GarcÃa Jr. (2) during the first inning of a baseball game Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
It was the Twins’ fifth loss since returning from the all-star break last week, and sixth loss in their past nine games. Three of those losses are to the two worst teams in baseball, Colorado — dead-last with 77 losses after being drilled, 18-0, at Baltimore — and Washington, which pulled back to 20 games under .500 with Saturday’s victory.
“It’s not going to be a memorable game for our team,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You know, could you call it maybe uncrisp? You know, I don’t like using the words that kind of bring it down a whole lot. … We’ve been playing some pretty good fundamental baseball. Today was not that.”
Royce Lewis was 2 for 4 with a run-scoring single, and Ty France doubled him in from first as the Twins pulled within 5-2 in the sixth inning.
But Call squelched that momentum with his homer in the seventh, and the Nationals added three runs off of left-hander Kody Funderburk in the eighth for their sixth win in 13 games.
“He’s a professional baseball player,” Nationals interim manager Miguel Cairo said of Call, who raised his batting average to .275 in 70 games this season. “For him to come up and get a big hit after Jacob got hit in the finger, it was big. He had a great day today.”
Left-hander Mitchell Parker (7-10) allowed two runs on eight hits and a walk in 5⅔ innings for the victory.
One of the Twins’ two all-stars with Byron Buxton, Ryan (10-5) wasn’t his usual self, allowing five runs — four earned — on six hits and a walk. He struck out five.
“Just a weird one, I think,” Ryan said. “I don’t know.”
During a scoreless first, Ryan walked James Wood, then watched Buxton steal a double from Garcia Jr. when he leapt to catch a line drive before it hit the scoreboard in right-center.
After a 1-2-3 second inning, on three middle infield groundouts, he allowed a leadoff single to No. 8 hitter Millas, who then stole second. Call, pinch-hitting for Young, laced a single into left to plate Millas and make it 1-0.
Washington Nationals’ Alex Call (17) slides to score off a two-run double by CJ Abrams during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Saturday, July 26, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Garcia Jr. homered off Ryan to start the fourth for a 2-0 lead, and the Nationals broke it open in the fifth.
Daylen Lile and Millas started the inning with sharp singles, bringing Call to the plate with runners at first and second. Call sliced a loping liner into shallow right, and right fielder Willi Castro, first baseman Ty France and second baseman Brooks Lee converged.
Lee got his glove on it, but it bounced out, loading the bases with Nationals. Leadoff hitter Abrams followed with a bases-clearing double into the right-field corner before the Twins had recorded an out.
Pitching coach Pete Maki came out for a visit, and Ryan attacked Abrams with a cutter that was high and in the strikezone.
“I don’t know if it was in. I think it was,” Ryan said. “It looked, to my eyes, it was. But like I said, (he) beat me to the spot. I was convicted in the pitch and seemed to execute it, but probably could have gone other options there.
“At the same time, there’s numbers to back that up, so we made that decision. I was convicted in that. Sometimes they get there.”
Ryan got the next three batters on a strikeout and two long fly balls to center and never came back for the sixth.
Justin Topa threw a scoreless sixth before giving up Call’s third homer of the season, which landed a few rows into the home run porch in right field.
“He missed with a slider, way in,” Call said. “I knew he was going to bring me one, so that’s what I was thinking. He brought me one right where I like it, middle low. I wasn’t trying to do too much with it, just hit it hard, but I hit it and I was like, ‘That should get off the wall.’ And it got over the fence.”
Briefly
Buxton left the game after the sixth inning with what the Twins called “left-side soreness.” He is day to day.
Originally Published: July 26, 2025 at 8:12 PM CDT