A key error, an infield hit and that was all the Milwaukee Brewers needed in the end to walk-off the Twins in extra innings 8-7 and sweep the two-game series.
The Cleveland Guardians were idle on Wednesday because their game against the Dodgers was suspended because of rain. It is now set to resume Thursday with the Dodgers leading the Guards, 3-1. Still, the Minnesota loss means the Guards have moved a half-game closer to the Twins and now trail the top spot in the AL Central by 4.5 games.
The Twins had no trouble collecting hits and scoring runs in this one, but again were let down by a bullpen that coughed up five runs after starter Kenta Maeda exited the game after five innings.
Quick-hook Baldelli is not to blame for that move because Maeda was not terribly efficient, tossing 92 pitches over five innings. The result is that Rocco had to run deep on the bullpen with mixed results.
Emilio Pagan allowed two runs, Caleb Thielbar served up a run, Griffin Jax made a scoreless appearance and closer Jhoan Duran allowed two runs, but both were unearned because of the fielding error committed by Michael A. Taylor in the bottom of the 10th inning.
The Twins need to regroup and regroup fast because they face the Texas Rangers over the next four games. Pablo Lopez gets the ball Thursday.
Extra innings …
-On Aug. 23, 1977, Twins pitcher Dave Goltz, who won 20 games that season, fired a one-hitter to blank the Boston Red Sox, 7-0.
Goltz allowed one hit over nine innings with three walks and 10 strikeouts. The Twins chased Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins to an early shower and backed Goltz with seven runs on 14 hits, three of them from Lyman Bostock.
The Minneapolis Tribune lede:
“A one-hitter never entered Dave Goltz’s mind Tuesday night, he said, after pitching the Minnesota Twins to a one-hit 7-0 victory over Boston before 32,346 people at Met Stadium.”
The Boston Globe lede (with a Bob Ryan byline):
“Appropriately, the Red Sox slipped back into town under the cover of darkness, their aimless wandering through the heartland of America ending in the most humiliating loss of a gruesome trip.”
Advantage: Boston Globe. Wow.
Sources: MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com