James Outman delivers big moments for Twins, but Angels get the 4-3 win

ANAHEIM, Calif. – James Outman homered, doubled, walked and prevented an all-but-certain Angels run Wednesday with a great catch on the warning track.

Alas, the Twins needed one more heroic act from him that he couldn’t deliver.

Outman tried but failed to repeat that catch in the eighth inning of a tied game. Bryce Teodisio’s long fly ball off Twins reliever Cole Sands bounced off the center-field wall and back toward the infield. Teodisio reached third base with a leadoff triple and scored on a sacrifice fly moments later, delivering a 4-3 Angels victory.

“I was just watching video of it — I should have given myself more space,” Outman said. “Get the ball a little bit more on my right side, instead of going straight back. I jumped and it was kind of behind my head at the last moment. If I give myself a little more room, I catch it.”

Still, it was his second two-hit game, and second homer as a Twin, in the series. That must feel good, right?

“We lost the game, that’s the most important thing,” Outman said, shaking his head. “Can’t enjoy it if we lose.”

The loss, which marked the first time the Twins have dropped back-to-back games to the Angels since 2022, ended the Twins’ weeklong road trip with a 2-4 record and, with their 82nd loss, clinched a losing record this season. They return to Target Field on Friday to start their final homestand of the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“That’s the story of the game,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of his team, which put at least two runners on base in six innings. “We had every opportunity right in front of us today. The capitalizing wasn’t there when we needed it, and we know that. We couldn’t find a way to find grass and have that good at-bat when we needed it, and that’s tough.”

BOXSCORE: Angels 4, Twins 3

MLB standings

Baldelli closed his postgame news conference by noting Buxton’s homer.

“How about Buxton — crushes another homer and we don’t even talk about it,” Baldelli marveled at the All-Star’s game-tying two-run shot, his second of the road trip and sixth in 12 games. “That’s a pretty good indicator of how great he’s got it going now.”

“Taj was great. He was lights-out,” Baldelli said. “He held his stuff into the seventh inning of the game, too, like the good pitchers do. I was actually pretty excited about leaving him in the game.”

So was Bradley.

“I thought it was great. He came up to me like, ‘Got any more gas in the tank?’ I said yeah,” Bradley said. “I get excited. This late in the season — a lot of starts, a lot of innings — to be able to maintain the same [velocity] and pitch shape, it just helps me compete late in the season.”

The third inning, though, was a hiccup that cost him a victory. Angels catcher Sebastian Rivero hit a hot smash that glanced off third baseman Royce Lewis’ glove, and the ball ricocheted into the stands for an automatic double. Two batters later, Mike Trout hit a line drive to left field that a leaping Ryan Fitzgerald at shortstop couldn’t quite reach, driving in Rivero.

Then came Bradley’s biggest mistake of the day: a 2-1 fastball left over the heart of the plate. Zach Neto clubbed it into the Twins bullpen, his 26th homer of the year, to make it a three-run inning.