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."
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