That old ninth-inning, walk-off magic finally failed the Twins on Sunday at Target Field, where Tampa Bay was the team that scored three times in the 10th inning to win 7-5.
The first two games of a three-game series ended with walk-off dramatics in the ninth inning for a Twins team that has seven walk-off victories at Target Field this season.
The Rays earned some payback Sunday, when they used a productive and opportunistic 10th inning off Twins reliever Justin Topa to take a 7-4 lead.
Yandy Díaz immediately put Tampa Bay back on top with a leadoff double that drove in ghost runner Danny Jansen from second to start the 10th. José Caballero followed with a sacrifice bunt right back to Topa, but the righthander’s throw to first sailed right between first baseman Kody Clemens and second baseman Brooks Lee, a three-base error that also allowed Díaz to score. Caballero then came home on Junior Caminero’s sacrifice fly.
The Twins, in turn, countered with just a single run in the bottom of the 10th after they had pulled off such drama each of the two games before.
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli called the game “very winnable,” adding: “We had our opportunities. We could talk a while about all the positive things. When you give up a handful of runs in the last couple innings, it does get challenging.
“It was a very tight series. The entire series was something you had to work for. Every inning was challenging. The vast majority of the series, we played excellent baseball.”
On Friday, it was Harrison Bader’s second home run of the game that beat the Rays 4-3. On Saturday, Lee’s safety squeeze scored Byron Buxton from third for a 6-5 victory. Their comeback ensured the Twins’ first series victory since early June.