CLEVELAND — In a long season where the Twins attempt to keep themselves from getting too high when things are going well or too low when things are going poorly, they’ve certainly experienced both through their first 46 games.
Heck, they experienced both during just the ninth inning on Sunday afternoon in Cleveland.
After Byron Buxton, with some help from the Cleveland defense, used his legs to help tie up the game with two outs in the ninth inning, the Twins quickly saw things unravel in the bottom of the ninth — after they appeared to be out of the inning.
Will Brennan’s three-run home run off Jhoan Duran made walk-off winners of the Cleveland Guardians, who sent the Twins to a 5-2 loss on Sunday at Progressive Field. It’s their sixth straight loss as their longest losing streak of their season stretched on.
“There’s no losses that are going to be easy when you’re not playing at your best, when things aren’t working out,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I even said it to the team: it can feel like you’re underneath something and nothing that you do is going to get you out of it. There’s a lot that we can do to get out of it, and I want our guys to know that.”
The Twins (24-22), held quiet offensively for most of the day, came close to climbing out of it on Sunday — or at least were in a position where they could have walked away with a win over Cleveland (30-17).
With two outs in the ninth, catcher Ryan Jeffers, the league-leader in hit by pitches, was nicked, keeping their chances alive. Buxton, called upon to pinch run for him, beat out a bang-bang play at second base on Willi Castro’s fielder’s choice, a play that video review confirmed.
Had Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase not then dropped Alex Kirilloff’s easy groundball fed to him by first baseman Josh Naylor, the game would have been over. Instead, Clase couldn’t hang on. Naylor grabbed the ball and Buxton, caught between third and home, took a step back towards third, perhaps what prompted Naylor to throw there.
Buxton broke home, sliding in without a throw.
“My biggest thing there was, like, just battle and compete. It’s just one of those. You don’t want to be the last out at third. You don’t want to be the last out at home,” Buxton said. “So mentality-wise, it was a pickle, but mentality, it was like, ‘He’s got to throw the ball one way, and whatever way he throws it, just take off the other way.’”
But the highs of that play, of tying the game were quickly wiped away. The Twins appeared to have gotten the third out when Christian Vázquez corralled a wild pitch and threw to Carlos Correa at second, but the call was overturned upon review.
Minnesota Twins’ Byron Buxton, left, slides safely home as Cleveland Guardians’ Austin Hedges, right, waits for a throw during the ninth inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)
After an intentional walk, Duran threw a first-pitch curveball that Brennan hammered. The closer said he would have preferred to have thrown a fastball.
“It’s not my decision. I thought that he wasn’t good with fastballs,” Duran said. “And I’m an employee here, so whatever I need to throw, I need to throw.”
That home run sent the Twins to a loss on a day where Chris Paddack was nearly untouchable for eight innings, the longest start of his career. Two batters into the game, he was already down after Andrés Giménez hit a two-run blast to center.
But after that, he sent down 12 straight batters. A double in the fifth inning disrupted his streak — so he started another one. He sent down the next 11 batters in order to finish off his outing.
“I wanted to be a stopper today of this bad juju and we’re putting pressure on ourselves again, like we did early on in the season,” Paddack said. “That’s why you play 162, man. It’s a roller coaster of events.”
But though he certainly did his job, he got little run support — the only run the Twins scored before the ninth came on Jose Miranda’s third homer of the season. The Twins were stifled by Guardians starter Tanner Bibee, who dueled Paddack for seven innings.
While they finished with just four hits, they also ran into some bad luck, like when Jeffers hit a ball up the middle that appeared as if it were going to sneak through. Instead, shortstop Bryan Rocchio dove and shoveled a throw to second to get Correa and spark a double play.
And so the Twins left Cleveland empty-handed, in search of answers as they attempt to recapture the success they were having just a week earlier.
“The whole game, just hit after hit, they catch a line drive, or make a good play, a double play. The series was a tough one offensively,” Buxton said. “Pitching staff, they go out there and they keep us in the game and give us every opportunity. We’ve just got to settle back down and get back to being us and doing what we do best.”
Twins encountering much tougher AL Central than they’ve seen lately
Twins blown out in Cleveland, losing streak hits five games
Twins’ Carlos Correa pitches idea to improve umpiring
José Ramírez’s late heroics sends Twins to loss
Knee feeling better, Byron Buxton’s return to Twins imminent
