MN Twins — Had one baseball carried a matter of feet more to left field in the ninth inning, Wednesday\u2019s game would have been another dramatic act in the show being put forth by the Twins\u2019 next young core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, Matt Wallner\u2019s bid for a third consecutive home game with a game-winning homer fell into the waiting glove of Detroit left fielder Akil Baddoo at the warning track. One plate appearance later, Donovan Solano grounded into a double play that ended the Twins\u2019 bid for a crazy comeback in an\u00a08-7 loss to the Tigers<\/a>\u00a0that resulted in a split of the two-game set at Target Field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven if we have three or four innings where it doesn’t look so hot, all of a sudden, we kind of catch it, and we find something we’re looking for, and we stack some good at-bats and we hit some balls good,\u201d manager Rocco Baldelli said. \u201cSo we’ll take that. But we needed more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n All that drama became necessary after the Twins allowed an early 4-0 lead to slip away behind a rare tough outing from Kenta Maeda, who recorded only 12 outs, and a four-run seventh against Griffin Jax, whose recent struggles continued when he allowed a triple and two homers to cede the lead to the Tigers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s been more than a month since the Twins have had both their highest-leverage relievers — Jax and Jhoan Duran — at their best together. They\u2019ve managed to this point, but are still looking for more consistent execution down the stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou can\u2019t let one game or two games or five games get in the way of closing things down and winning games for your team,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cThose guys know that. I don\u2019t think it needs to be said to them. Overall, both have been very good for us for a long time, and they\u2019ll adjust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, Minnesota’s rookie coalition continued its attack, with seven combined hits from Edouard Julien and the newly healthy Royce Lewis, along with that 340-foot flyout by Wallner that would have been a walk-off blast in 10 MLB parks, according to Statcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Julien\u2019s first career four-hit game included a two-run single in the second inning that helped the Twins race out to the 4-0 lead against Detroit starter Reese Olson. The rookie second baseman also led off the ninth inning with a single before Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler hit back-to-back blasts to turn an 8-4 hole into an 8-7 deficit with two big swings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think we have a pretty solid team right now and, one through nine, everybody can hit and our pitchers are going good and we have a lot of good, young players,\u201d Julien said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty fun to watch this team go right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n