SAN FRANCISCO >> Carlos Santana lifted his arm and pointed up towards the sky near the beginning of his trot around the bases.
He had just hit a home run that barely stayed fair in left field, and it was one that was both very meaningful in the game and for him personally.
Santana’s home run gave the Twins the lead back and provided what would be the game-winning run in their 4-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday evening.
It was also his first career home run at Oracle Park, the final current ballpark that the veteran had yet to hit a longball at. He is now believed to be one of just three current players to have hit a home run at all 30 stadiums, joining Giancarlo Stanton and Manny Machado in accomplishing the feat.
It’s a milestone that Santana, who recently played in his 2,000th game, was well aware he was chasing, and it was part of a day in which he reached base four times.
The Twins, shorthanded with Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Jose Miranda all banged up on the bench, had scored the first two runs in the fourth inning with Ryan Jeffers coming around to score on a Matt Wallner double and Wallner touching home on a passed ball.
But that lead wouldn’t hold.
The Giants, who nearly took a lead on a three-run home run in the first inning that was just foul, grabbed a run on Mike Yastrzemski’s slow groundball, which found a hole through the left side of the infield in the fourth.
They grabbed one more an inning later off Simeon Woods Richardson, with a run coming around to score after a ball deflected off his glove and subsequently out of the reach of second baseman Brooks Lee and into the outfield, tying the game.
But shortly after, Santana’s history-making home run put the Twins back on top, and they’d grab an insurance run in the top of the ninth to help take the second game of the series.