The Twins suffered one of their worst regular-season losses in Twins history on Wednesday, a defeat that rivals the 11-10 meltdown to the Cleveland Indians on Sept. 28, 1984.
In other words, it wasn’t pretty.
The Twins scored first, the Oakland A’s scored next, the Twins tied the game at 7-7, then pulled ahead to make it 10-7. The A’s closed the gap to make it 10-9 Twins, then the A’s tied the game to send it to extra-innings. In the extra frame, Byron Buxton hit a two-run bomb and the Twins led 12-10. But with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th, the Twins committed back-to-back errors (fielding and throwing), which allowed three runs to score and handed the A’s the 13-12 walk-off victory. It’s the 11th win in a row for the A’s, while the Twins fell to 1-9 in their last 10 games.
The only good news from this game is that Twins manager Rocco Baldelli penciled in the A-team on Wednesday and they delivered. Josh Donaldson, Nelson Cruz, Buxton and Jorge Polanco had 13 of the Twins’ 18 hits. Donaldson, Cruz and Buxton also homered in the game, giving Buxton and Cruz a team-tying six home runs apiece this season.
Although the offense woke up, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has sounded the alarm about the pitching staff. Starter Kenta Maeda, who has not been himself so far this season, was awful, allowing seven runs, all earned, on eight hits, including three home runs, over three innings.
And Twins-related social media exploded in anger after closer Alex Colome allowed the tying run in the ninth. He was ultimately tagged with the blown save and loss, although because of the two errors behind him, he allowed four runs, but only one of them was earned.
J.A. Happ gets the ball Friday at home against the Pittsburgh Pirates. We can beat the Bucs, right?
Extra innings…
-What happened on Sept. 28, 1984? The Twins were in Cleveland to play the Indians. They ran up a 10-0 lead over the Tribe and then watched it all fall apart for an 11-10 loss.
-Twins players JT Riddle, Andrelton Simmons, Max Kepler, Caleb Thielbar and Kyle Garlick are on the COVID-19 injured list.