LOS ANGELES — When Mookie Betts offered at Griffin Jax’s 1-2 pitch with two outs in the ninth inning on Wednesday, it looked like that would be the end of the game, the end of a win — and a series — that the Twins could head back to Minnesota feeling good about.
First base umpire Emil Jimenez had other thoughts. Betts checked his swing, the umpire ruled, extending the at-bat. Gifted new life, Betts barely beat out an infield single, keeping the Dodgers’ hopes alive.
That at-bat was the first in a series of events and decisions that quickly led to a gut-wrenching 4-3 walk-off loss for the Twins, who need to win to avoid being broken up at next week’s trade deadline, to the Dodgers on Wednesday afternoon.
With Betts on first, manager Rocco Baldelli made the decision to intentionally walk Shohei Ohtani. While Jax said he would’ve liked the opportunity to face him, Baldelli was not going to let the Dodgers (60-43) superstar, who had already homered in the game, beat the Twins (49-53), especially with Teoscar Hernández behind him already out of the game in place of light-hitting Esteury Ruiz, who had entered as a pinch runner.
The intentional walk pushed the game-tying run into scoring position.
“Ultimately is there a right answer?” Baldelli asked. “For me, the right answer was we’re going to pitch to Ruiz and go get him … (and) not be afraid to make a decision and Jax is one of the best relievers in baseball so I’m going to bet on Jax to go out there, dial it in and pitch to Ruiz.”
Except it didn’t work out as planned.
Jax allowed a walk to Ruiz to load the bases and the next batter, Freddie Freeman, after falling behind 0-2 earlier in the at-bat, hit a ball towards left fielder Harrison Bader that he dove for but could not snag, allowing the tying and game-winning run to score.
And the unraveling all started with the missed call during the Betts at-bat.
“It’s frustrating,” Jax said. “I just feel like that’s kind of a representation of my season so far where it’s so close but just not putting all the pieces together to get that consistency day in, day out. I definitely feel like he went.”
But the Twins didn’t get the call, dropping a game that had been a pitchers’ duel between starters Chris Paddack and Tyler Glasnow, who each allowed a solo home run — Paddack to Ohtani and Glasnow to Royce Lewis — but nothing else in their efforts.
The Twins, after falling behind in the seventh inning by a run, took advantage of a pair of walks to lead off the eighth inning, stealing a combined four bases in the inning, which helped lead to a pair of runs and a lead they held until the dramatic ninth inning.
“Sometimes you’re going to play your butts off and you’re going to lose the game ultimately but that was one of those games where sometimes you lose and you feel even more proud sometimes of the way your guys played and handled themselves,” Baldelli said.
Twins place Festa on IL
David Festa woke up with right shoulder soreness on Tuesday morning after starting on Monday night in Los Angeles. A day later, the Twins put the starter on the injured list and sent him for magnetic resonance imaging — they expect to know more about his status in the coming days. It’s another blow for a rotation that is already dealing with injuries to Pablo López (shoulder) and Bailey Ober (hip).
Though Festa is now on the injured list — Travis Adams was recalled to take his spot on the active roster on Wednesday — the Twins are still planning on having Ober make a second rehab start on Friday with the Triple-A Saints, rather than changing their plans for him.
Ober threw four scoreless innings in his first rehab start but Baldelli said that the mechanical things that pitching coach Pete Maki had been talking to with Ober were still “a work in progress.”
“I think this is a good opportunity for Bailey to actually implement some of the mechanical work that we’ve been talking about and he’s been working on,” Baldelli said.
Briefly
The Twins have agreed to a deal with their first-round draft pick, Marek Houston, among others. … The Twins have Thursday off before returning to action on Friday to host the Washington Nationals.
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