Twins' division lead slips as Guardians triumph at Target Field

Royce Lewis homered for the third consecutive game. Pablo López pitched six innings. Michael A. Taylor probably saved a run with a diving catch and added a homer.

It was one of those games where the Twins didn't play poorly. Just none of it was good enough. Lewis drilled a solo homer, but he flew out with the bases loaded in the first inning. López allowed three runs when he wasn't at his sharpest.

The Cleveland Guardians lost their starting pitcher, Gavin Williams, to a knee injury after the first inning, but the Twins failed to capitalize when they had runners in scoring position against the bullpen during their 4-2 loss Tuesday night at Target Field.

The Twins' lead in the American League Central Division slipped to six games over the Guardians.

"It does come down to, sometimes, just one or two swings and putting them on the ball at the right time," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "We didn't do that today."

Lewis received a standing ovation from a portion of the 23,433 fans when he came up to the plate with the bases loaded in the first inning. He had hit grand slams in back-to-back games, the first rookie in major league history to accomplish the feat, and the Twins set the stage for another dramatic moment through a walk, an error and a hit batsman.

In a seven-pitch at-bat, Lewis finally looked human when he ended the inning with a flyout in shallow right field. Twins hitters went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

With the way Lewis is hitting, home runs almost feel like an expectation. When Lewis led off the fourth inning, he crushed an elevated fastball from Guardians reliever Hunter Gaddis past the fence in left field. Lewis has homered five times in the past seven games.

The Twins couldn't build upon it. They stranded two runners on base in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth. Cleveland's bullpen had a stretch where it retired 11 of 12 batters until Taylor hit a solo homer in the ninth inning against closer Emmanuel Clase. It was Taylor's 20th home run of the season, his single-season career high.

López did well to keep the score close when he was faced with some jams. The Guardians had runners on second and third with no outs in the third inning. López struck out the next two batters before a run scored when catcher Christian Vázquez mishandled an inside fastball and the pitch deflected off his mitt toward the backstop.

"The wild pitch is frustrating because there was second and third with no outs," said López, who permitted three runs in six innings while giving up eight hits and three walks. "I got two strikeouts. Obviously, Will Brennan is at the plate and first base is open. I knew I didn't have to really give in, but then a run scoring like that is frustrating. I think I let my frustration get too much out of me. I ended up walking him."

In the fourth, Cleveland loaded the bases with no outs after a ground ball single to right field, a walk and an infield single. López didn't allow another ball out of the infield, but a run scored on a groundout.

López's last batter, José Ramírez, was robbed from a potential extra-base hit when Taylor laid out for a diving catch in center field with speedy runner Steven Kwan on first base.