If the Twins want to successfully defend their American League Central title this season, they’re going to have to start regularly beating the best teams in baseball — if only because one of them is the Cleveland Guardians.

The Guardians lead the AL Central by five games over the Twins and Kansas City Royals, and are 5-0 in their head-to-head meetings with the Twins this season.

This week’s series against major league-leading Philadelphia was a good start.

Carlos Santana hit a two-out, two-run double in the seventh to tie the score, and Trevor Larnach scored on Max Kepler’s grounder against a drawn-in infield in the ninth as the Twins rallied to walk-off the Phillies, 5-4, in front of 33,813 at Target Field.

Minnesota is now 4-21 against the six major league teams with better records than theirs, but now they have their first series victory over one of them.

Matt Wallner hit a solo home run to give the Twins a 1-0 lead in the second inning, but Phillies starter Aaron Nola held them in check through six innings and left with the score tied 1-1.

Trae Turner tied the game with a solo home run off top pitching prospect David Festa in the fifth inning, and Kyle Schwarber rapped a two-out, two-run double off Caleb Thielbar in the sixth.

The Twins stranded Max Kepler at third after a one-out triple in the fourth, and left the bases loaded in the sixth after Trevor Larbach hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Willi Castro and Larnach drew one-out walks off Orion Kerkerling, and Byron Buxton loaded the bases when he was hit in the forearm by a pitch. Kepler scored Castro with a fielder’s choice groundout, and Phillies manager Rob Thompson brought in left-hander Matt Strahm, who was greeted by a two-run double to the left-center gap by Santana.

Gregory Soto hit Larnach to start the ninth, and Larnach moved to second on a wild pitch. After Austin Martin bunted Larnach to third, Kepler supplied the winning RBI. It was Kepler’s 11th walk-off plate appearance, tying Harmon Killebrew and Kirby Puckett for the most in team history.

The Phillies added an insurance run in the seventh when Nick Castellanos blooped a two-out single into right to score Brandon Marsh, who reached on a fielder’s choice, against Brock Stewart — who was making his first big-league appearance since May 1.

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