Twins manager Rocco Baldelli had to turn to the bullpen early in Wednesday’s game after starter Kenta Maeda burned through 87 pitches in four innings.
Maeda exited with a 4-3 lead over the Detroit Tigers. The Twins got a scoreless inning from Dylan Floro, the same from Emilio Pagan and then Griffin Jax blew it all up, allowing four runs on three hits, including two home runs, to make it 7-4 Tigers.
Motown tacked on one more run late, then the Twins made it very interesting in the bottom of the ninth inning. Jorge Polanco hit a two-run shot, Max Kepler hit a solo blast and Royce Lewis singled with Matt Wallner, the hero of Tuesday’s win, coming up to the plate.
Wallner put the ball in play, a high fly to left field that appeared to be a home run, but it fell just short of the second deck for the first out in the inning. Donovan Solano then hit into a game-ending double play and the rally was dead, the Tigers winning 8-7.
The Twins dropped the season series to the Tigers, a team that is 12 games under .500, with a record of 5-8. If the Twins don’t win the division, fans, players and management can circle those eight losses.
Extra innings …
-Rookies Eddie Julien and Lewis continue to look like the real deal. The Twins banged out 13 hits in the loss and seven of them belonged to the two rookies. Julien went 4-for-5 at the top of the order with a run scored and two RBI.
-Our seats for Wednesday’s game were much better than those we had for Tuesday’s contest. In fact, the Wallner fly to left field appeared to be coming toward my son and I in section 229 until it fell short of the deck and was caught for an out.
Our seats, about 10 feet from the left field foul pole, offered good views of the diamond and surrounding stadium and were much more comfortable because the cup holder was attached to the back of the seat, rather than the arm rest.
The seats on Tuesday, in an area of Target Field that I think is called Treasure Island Cove, provide good views of the field but that arm rest/cup holder thing doesn’t work at all.
-And then there was this …
