New-look Twins have an old-look result, losing in 10 innings to Guardians

CLEVELAND – On the first day of the rest of the season, the new-look Twins had a familiar ending against the Cleveland Guardians: A walk-off loss.

Kody Funderburk, the fourth reliever out of the Twins bullpen Friday at Progressive Field, gave up a walk-off single to Kyle Manzardo in the 10th inning in a 3-2 loss. It was Manzardo’s second walk-off hit against the Twins this season — he did it on April 29 — and the Guardians have walked off the Twins in Cleveland six times over the past two years.

The Twins have lost nine of their 13 games out of the All-Star break, but this was the first one after they traded 10 players from their major league roster at the trade deadline.

“We had a lot of things that we were working through today,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It was probably the busiest day that I’ve ever had at the ballpark with our players and staff.”

Joe Ryan, who allowed two runs in six innings, thought he was traded after an errant social media post from FOX Sports said he was dealt to the Boston Red Sox. It took several minutes before he learned there was no trade involving him.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” said Ryan, who didn’t sleep until after midnight following the deadline. “I felt like I threw a whole game [Thursday] with a lot of emotions. I was kind of in a weird state of mind and physically pretty exhausted, too.”

Ryan spent the hours before the trade deadline around Griffin Jax and Carlos Correa. He was with Jax when he was duped by the later-deleted tweet — members of the Twins front office didn’t see the post, and didn’t reach out to Ryan — and then it wasn’t long before Jax was dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Twins promoted eight players before Friday’s game. A couple of players joked they should’ve wore nametags during batting practice.

“It is weird when your friends that you’ve been with for so long are just gone the next day,” Ryan said. “We’re obviously a small-market team, so it’s like you know that the roster is going to be pretty sturdy for the year, and then this happens with a lot of guys that you expect to be with for the next couple years. It’s just sobering.”

Despite all the changes, the results against the Guardians, particularly in close games, were the same. The Twins have lost 13 consecutive one-run games at Progressive Field. The Guardians have won 20 of their past 28 home games against the Twins despite being outscored 119-106.

In the 10th inning, Funderburk misplayed a Steven Kwan bunt, stepping in front of charging third baseman Royce Lewis. Three batters later, Manzardo deposited a slider into left field for a game-winning hit.

“We have to play good fundamental baseball,” Baldelli said. “We have to make the plays, take the outs they’re giving us. They were trying to give us an out and we weren’t able to get the out. It was a good bunt. It was a bunt that was a play that should’ve made fairly easily, and we weren’t able to make it.”

Gaddis made the ill-advised decision to fire a throw to first base, and the ball skipped past Gold Glove first baseman Carlos Santana into right field. Gaddis’ error allowed two runs to score, tying the game.

The Twins didn’t have another runner reach scoring position until the automatic runner in the 10th inning, when automatic runner DaShawn Keirsey Jr. only advanced as far as third base.

BOXSCORE: Cleveland 3, Twins 2 (10)

MLB standings

Guardians righthander Gavin Williams struck out eight batters across six scoreless innings, giving up four hits. Kwan, the All-Star left fielder, tossed out Lee at the plate to end the third inning, and Lee grounded out with the bases loaded in the fourth.