Faced with a one- and two-run deficits, the Twins were able to battle back twice against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday afternoon. Faced with a three-run deficit in the 10th inning, they were unable to pull off another rally.
After Harrison Bader’s game-tying, two-run home run in the eighth inning electrified the Target Field crowd and eventually forced extra innings, reliever Justin Topa gave up three runs in the top of the 10th inning. The Twins’ response wasn’t enough, and they dropped the series finale against the Rays, 7-5, on Sunday afternoon.
Minnesota Twins’ Harrison Bader gestures after hitting a two-run home run during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
After a trio of the Twins’ top bullpen arms had already been used, Topa allowed a go-ahead double to Yandy Diaz, which scored the automatic runner. A second run scored on a sacrifice bunt, and Topa himself threw the ball away trying to nab the runner at first. That runner, Jose Caballero, would score the Rays’ third run of the inning.
All of that came after some eighth-inning drama in which the Rays scored a pair of runs on two batted balls that didn’t leave the infield and Bader, fresh off the bench, tied it the with his third home run of the weekend.
The Twins had jumped ahead in the first inning when Byron Buxton hit a home run to get things going. They held that lead until the third, when starter Joe Ryan allowed a solo shot to Taylor Walls, but they wouldn’t lead again after that. An inning later, the Rays took a lead on a Jonathan Aranda RBI single.
That was all the Rays would manage against Ryan, who threw six innings of two-run ball, walking one and striking out eight as he recorded yet another quality start. The Twins came back for the first time in the sixth, using a great slide by Trevor Larnach to help him evade a tag at the plate to tie the game up.
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