In the aftermath of another tough loss — this one the Twins’ ninth straight defeat in a one-run game — Chris Paddack echoed a sentiment he shared in early April when things weren’t going the Twins’ way.
“Keep the faith, Minnesota,” the starting pitcher said. “We’re not going anywhere. We’re busting our butts every day. This little funk that we’re in, this little storm that’s happening, it’s going to go away. And things are going to happen good for the Twins here soon.”
His hopeful message, on the heels of a 6-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night at Target Field, comes at a time where many Twins fans are likely losing faith daily. The Twins (37-42) have now lost five straight, 11 of 12, and are 6-16 in the month of June.
Their latest loss came in a game that slipped away in the ninth inning when closer Jhoan Duran, after getting the first out of the inning and then getting ahead 0-2 on former teammate Jorge Polanco, hit him with a pitch, putting him on. He would allow a single and hit another batter before Julio Rodríguez’s sacrifice fly brought home what would become the game-winning run for Seattle (41-37).
“I tried to throw the best pitch to Julio, and he made the contact he wanted,” Duran said. “He won this time.”
It actually Rodríguez’s second sacrifice fly of the day, the first coming as part of a third inning that spiraled away from Paddack.
The Mariners began the inning with two straight hits before J.P. Crawford dropped down a bunt that Paddack collected and then airmailed to first base. Instead of having two runners on and one out, the Mariners had the bases loaded, nobody out, setting the stage for the big inning.
Paddack said third baseman Brooks Lee had called him off, but he believed it was going to be a bang-bang play and that he needed to grab it.
“If I get that out, does the inning change? I think it does,” Paddack said. “I don’t end up throwing close to 40 pitches. Instead of five (runs), maybe it’s two, maybe it’s three. It keeps us in the game, and we end up winning that ballgame.”
Still, the Twins gave themselves a chance to win, pulling themselves out of the five-run deficit over the course of two innings.
Kody Clemens got the Twins on the board in the bottom of the third with his eighth home run. Then in the fourth inning, Trevor Larnach sparked the offense with some aggressive baserunning, hustling to second on a play that looked destined to be a single.
“Trevor is standing on second base with a double, and then things start happening,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It’s probably not by accident that that’s the way it works.”
Larnach scored on a hit by Lee. Another run came around when Ty France bounced into a double play. Then with one big, timely swing, catcher Ryan Jeffers tied the game with a double off Mariners starter Luis Castillo that hit off the wall in left field.
The Twins held the Mariners off for the next few innings thanks to the efforts of Paddack, who went five innings, Louie Varland, Griffin Jax and Brock Stewart. But they were unable to overcome Seattle for the second straight night.
“It’s disappointing, because you’re right there,” Baldelli said. “One swing or a clean inning in the ninth and you’re right there. You’ve got the opportunities, and that’s all you can ask for is the opportunities. You’ve got to come through.”
Leave a Reply