Better effort, but same sorry result

Richie Sexson's walkoff blast dropped the Twins to 1-6 on the road trip.

By Joe Christensen, Star Tribune

Last update: August 14, 2007 - 1:03 AM

SEATTLE - The Twins' postseason chances are fading fast, but every now and then this team is still good for an edge-of-your-seat thriller.

On Monday night at Safeco Field, the Twins threw one of their best recent efforts at a Seattle Mariners team sitting atop the wild-card standings.

Johan Santana pitched seven solid innings, and after falling behind against Seattle ace Felix Hernandez, the Twins scored two seventh-inning runs to tie it.

But all that did was set the table for more grief, when Richie Sexson led off the ninth inning with a home run off Matt Guerrier, giving Seattle a 4-3 victory.

Sexson drilled Guerrier's slider over the left-center field wall for his 19th homer of the season, and a crowd of 37,902 went bananas while the Twins walked off the field with their heads down.

With their fifth loss in a row, and seventh in eight games, the Twins fell nine games behind the Yankees and Mariners in the wild-card race.

The Twins, 1-6 on their nine-game road trip, fell to seven games behind Cleveland and Detroit in the A.L. Central.

Once again, the Twins could point to failed chances.

In a mostly silent clubhouse, Manager Ron Gardenhire wasn't thinking about Sexson's home run as much as a failed sacrifice bunt attempt by Nick Punto in the ninth.

It was 3-3 when Jason Tyner led off the inning with a single against Mariners closer J.J. Putz.

Punto flailed at one bunt attempt, took a called strike and then popped a third attempt foul for a glaring strikeout.

"Sometimes the mind is a dangerous thing in this game," Gardenhire said. "Guys just try to do funny things at different times. With Nicky there, it's a sacrifice bunt, and it looks like he's trying to drag bunt. Square around, get the ball on the ground, and make them make a play. That's just your mind getting in the way there."

Gardenhire said he sent Luis Rodriguez to pinch hit for Alexi Casilla because Rodriguez was 1-for-2 for his career against Putz and the switch-hitting Casilla has been struggling from the left side, batting, .241.

Rodriguez hit a soft liner to left, and Jason Bartlett fouled out to the catcher, ending the inning, and setting the stage for Sexson's heroics.

The Twins were 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position, and both hits came from Joe Mauer.

But even he had a slip-up. After hitting the two-out, run-scoring double that tied the score in the seventh, Mauer tried stretching the hit into a triple. Mariners left fielder Adam Jones had crashed into a wall and fallen halfway into the stands, but he got up and threw out Mauer easily.

"It's right in front of [Mauer]; he just got overzealous there," Gardenhire said. "I think he saw the guy in the stands, thinking he had a shot, but that's a little overzealous with two outs, you can't make the third out [at third].

"That's what I'm talking about. With Torii [Hunter] coming up, you just need to probably stay there. We're trying too hard. That's what we've been doing, trying too hard, and we end up making some silly plays."

Sizing up the mood, Hunter said, "I don't know what's wrong, don't know what happened. Don't know if it was [trading] Luis Castillo, or the comments from Johan, or what. But something negative has hit this clubhouse. Something's not right."

Joe Christensen • jchristensen@startribune.com

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