Jose Miranda's three-run, walk-off homer sends Twins past Brewers 4-1

Josh Hader is the closer Twins fans wish they had. The four-time All-Star leads the majors in saves with 27, has blown only one chance all season, and took the mound Wednesday having never allowed a run in his six previous Target Field appearances.

Jose Miranda is the rookie Twins fans are glad they have. The infielder let a low slider from Hader go by in the bottom of the ninth Wednesday, then turned on one across the middle, drilling it off the facing of the left-field upper deck. The blast scored three runs and earned the Twins a 4-1 victory over the Brewers and a split of their brief two-game series.

"Hey, we're human out there. We're not perfect," Luis Arraez summed up of a game that ended in the most unexpected way possible. "It can happen to anyone."

Apparently so, but this sort of failure is unprecedented for Milwaukee's bullpen ace. Though this wasn't a save situation, it was still notable: Never before had the lefthander faced at least three batters in a game without recording an out.

But with the score tied 1-1, Jorge Polanco drew a walk to open the inning, though the Brewers visibly complained that Polanco's check swing on 3-2 should have been strike three. Then Max Kepler got around on a slider and pulled a soft liner into right field.

"Great game. When you see the best closer in the game and you see our guys putting great at-bats together, it's definitely very encouraging," said shortstop Carlos Correa. "Everybody talks about the homer. The homer was great and gave us a win. But the at-bats by Polanco and Kepler — they just put pressure on the pitcher to throw strikes. [Miranda] got a good pitch to hit because of those two at-bats."

Pitching coach Chris Hook conferred with Hader before the rookie stepped in, but he surely didn't recommend the location of the pitch Miranda saw. When it deflected back onto the field from 396 feet away, his eighth home run in just 54 games, Target Field's biggest crowd of the season (38,802) erupted, Miranda faced the Twins' dugout and strutted down the first-base line, and his teammates grabbed the water jugs for the sixth wet-and-wild walk-off celebration of 2022.

"Oh my God, that was awesome," said Twins' starting pitcher Joe Ryan, who was watching the dramatic finish from the clubhouse but rushed to home plate to help drench Miranda. "The walk, and then Kep getting that hit, you just get that momentum rolling. And Jose has been doing it. … Good moment."

Ryan had a few, too, though perhaps not as many as he expected. The righthander allowed only two hits and two walks, but he was lifted with one out and bases empty in the sixth inning, his pitch count of 78 the third-lowest of his 14 starts this season. And that's with at least 10 days off between now and his next start, thanks to the All-Star break.

"Joe had a good outing," manager Rocco Baldelli said of Ryan, who recorded three 1-2-3 innings, struck out three and held the Brewers to 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position. "He probably could have kept pitching. He wasn't struggling. But he had to work maybe a little more as the outing went on."

Ryan's lone mistake, though, was a critical one — a 2-2 high fastball that Brewers outfielder Jace Peterson clubbed over the center field fence, just out of reach of Gilberto Celestino's leap, to tie the game in the third.

The early departure worked out well for the Twins, however, with a rested bullpen able to hold Milwaukee in check. Caleb Thielbar gave up a hit and a walk but induced a fly ball from Luis Urias to end a sixth-inning threat. Thielbar and Griffin Jax combined to strike out the side in the seventh, and Jax retired all three hitters he faced in the eighth.

On came Jhoan Duran, who got in trouble with a one-out double by Pedro Severino and a walk to Urias. But Arraez helped Duran escape with a slick double play, Arraez to Correa to Arraez.

That play earned Duran the first victory of his major league career — thanks to another rookie experiencing a memorable moment.

"This is by far my best moment so far," Miranda said. "Coming through in a moment like that against a team like that, a pitcher like that, it's pretty good."