CLEVELAND — It’s starting to feel like Progressive Field has become a house of horrors for the Minnesota Twins. Over the past few years, they’ve been treated to a myriad of frustrating, disappointing close losses, many of the walk-off variety.
The Twins were walked off on Thursday in the series finale for the second time in three games, falling 4-3 to the Cleveland Guardians in 10 innings following a pair of rain delays that kept them at the park for most of the day.
The Twins came into Cleveland riding high after winning five of six games at Target Field last week, playing some of their best baseball. After blowing out the Guardians on Monday, they faltered, scoring a combined six runs across the next three games, all losses.
“The Guardians push you in different ways,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “They play a certain brand of baseball and you end up in those types of games. You’ve got to find your way through these games and find ways to score and win.”
The Twins had a glimmer of hope late on Thursday when Mickey Gasper scored the go-ahead run on Jonah Bride’s sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th inning, giving them their first lead of the day. It didn’t last long.
Guardians star José Ramírez brought home the team’s automatic runner, singling off reliever Justin Topa. He then swiped second and came around to score the game-winning run on an Angel Martínez single.
The Twins outhit the Guardians 13-6 on the day, but were unable to make the most of their opportunities, finishing the day 3 for 14 with runners in scoring position and leaving 12 runners on base.
“Opportunities were abundant today,” Baldelli said. “We were on the bases basically the whole day and we’ve been here all day. … Of course it’s going to get a little frustrating at times when you’re not bringing them home.”
The Twins (13-19) were blanked by Guardians (18-13) starter Ben Lively, who lasted 5 2/3 innings. It wasn’t until the seventh inning, after the first rain delay of the game — this one just 17 minutes — that their offense broke through.
Harrison Bader’s infield single sparked a game-tying rally. Catcher Christian Vázquez singled him in and hits from Edouard Julien and Carlos Correa followed, helping produce the team’s second run of the game.
The Twins had another good opportunity in the eighth inning putting two runners on before the rain really started coming down. When the game resumed after a lengthy delay, Ryan Jeffers walked to load the bases before shortstop Correa popped up to end the threat.
The loss marked the 10th time that the Twins have gotten walked off in Cleveland over the last five seasons.
“It just seems like we keep falling short playing here,” Correa said. “We know they’ve got a great team and we know every time we come here there’s going to be close games. We’re failing to play just good enough to close them out and get the win.”
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