With summer gone and both autumn and playoff baseball approaching, Target Field's faithful endured a 76-minute weather delay before Friday night's game — only to endure again.
The Twins surrendered the first seven runs before they scored the final six in a 7-6 loss to Central Division-leading Cleveland.
They started the evening in second place, 1.5 games behind the Guardians and ended it after a 3 hour, 36 minute game, and after midnight, in third place, a game behind second-place Chicago and now 2.5 games behind Cleveland. .
Through it all, they allowed three homers in the first five innings, then delivered a comeback that ended a run short after star shortstop Carlos Correa's eighth-inning home run.
Just before that, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli asked crew-chief umpire Ted Barrett to check Cleveland reliever James Karinchak's hair for foreign substances.
"I have an obligation to my players and team to do what I think is right," Baldelli said. "It's hard to watch their pitcher do the things he does on the mound in a very upfront and straightforward way, trying apparently to alter some things. The last thing I want on Earth is to go on the field and ask for a player check."
Baldelli said Barrett told him he didn't find anything in a check of Karinchak's belt and hands.
Barrett himself told a pool reporter that Baldelli "suspected he had something" and added "I didn't find anything."
Cleveland's early 7-0 lead all came off starting pitcher Dylan Bundy before he left with two outs in the fifth inning.
By then, a 59-degree night reminded October is on the way, even if the Twins' seventh loss in nine games and failed comeback attempt didn't.
"We came back, which made it great," Baldelli said. "We just created too big a hole right there to come back from."
The Twins scored twice in the fifth and twice in the sixth, knocking out Cleveland starter Cal Quantrill after five innings. He won his eighth consecutive game, a career high dating to July 11, and now is 12-5.
Then the Twins pulled within 7-6 on Correa's two-run homer with two out in the eighth inning.
It was Correa's third consecutive game with a home run and the second time he has done that in his career going back to August 2016.
"It has been awesome, that's the type of superstar he is," said Twins first baseman Jose Miranda, who dodged a pitch from Karinchak right after Correa homered. "It has been good, especially now in September. He is hitting everything good."
The Twins returned to Target Field on Friday after the Yankees beat them in three of four games in the Bronx and they lost two of three in Chicago against the White Sox.
Before that, they had won five of six games at home, sweeping San Francisco in a three-game weekend series and winning two of three over Boston after that.
They had gone from four games out of first place entering the Giants series in late August to 1.5 games after they salvaged the series with the Yankees by winning the fourth and final game 4-3 on Thursday.
Before Friday's start of six-game homestand, Correa said there was "no hiding" the importance of three games at home against Cleveland in September.
"Just go out there and try to finish in first place after this series," Correa said. "We've just got to go out there and play our best baseball."
That chance to get into first place by Sunday passed them by Friday.
Rain delayed the scheduled 7:10 start until 8:26 p.m. But when it finally did come, it didn't take the Central leaders long to score a four-run first inning on a night attendance was announced at 18,595.
Right fielder Oscar Gonzalez's three-run home run that drove in first baseman Josh Naylor and third baseman Jose Ramirez ahead of him provided the centerpiece, right after Naylor's single drove in Amed Rosario for the night's first run.
Gonzalez's homer came on an 0-2 breaking ball that was yet another one this season hit out against the Twins with two strikes already thrown.
His two-run homer in the fifth made it his first multiple home-run game since he made his MLB debut in May.
