There are no moral victories in the standings, but the Twins are taking solace in their offense's performance over the past two weeks.
A lot went wrong in Wednesday's series finale against the Mariners. Starting pitcher Joe Ryan didn't make it out of the fourth inning. Reliever Jordan Balazovic gave up a costly three-run homer on a two-strike, two-out pitch. After Seattle scored in each of the first six innings, the Twins trailed by as many as five runs.
In a homestand full of dramatic comebacks, the Twins tried to stage their largest one and fell short in an 8-7 loss at Target Field. Following a four-run sixth inning, the Twins had only one runner in scoring position over the past three innings, and they dropped the final two games in the three-game series.
"We're being aggressive and swinging at better pitches," said Matt Wallner, who homered twice. "Sometimes that does come with the strikeouts that we've had, but you can't be too angry at anything when you're putting up seven, eight runs a game."
They tallied 12 hits, and four of them were solo homers. Wallner bashed home runs in consecutive at-bats, homering to right field in the fourth inning and left field in the sixth. The latter was a show of strength, a second-deck shot that traveled 426 feet on a hanging slider.
Following Wallner's second homer, the Twins continued to rally with two outs. Trevor Larnach and Kyle Farmer delivered back-to-back hits to knock Mariners starter Bryce Miller out of the game. Joey Gallo, who later exited the game with a heat-related illness, ended a 0-for-19 skid with an RBI double off reliever Matt Brash, and Christian Vázquez added an RBI single.
Some roster changes will come Friday — Byron Buxton is scheduled to return and Jorge Polanco could, too — and Wallner is hopeful he's done enough to remain with the club.
"I feel like I've done my part, but it's ultimately not my decision," Wallner said. "I'm just trying to do what I can do and I feel like I've done a good job of that, honestly."
Combined with Cleveland victory over kansas City, the Twins' head in the American league central fell to two games.
It looked like the Mariners delivered the big dagger in the fifth inning. Against Balazovic, Mariners shortstop Dylan Moore, who entered with a .128 batting average in 20 games, connected on a fastball in a 0-2 count for a three-run homer.
Moore's homer, his second of the game, marked the first extra-base hit by a righthanded batter off Balazovic this season. Balazovic held righties to a miniscule .286 OPS before Moore's 429-foot blast.
"I don't sit up here and question a lot of pitch selection," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said, "but if you do throw fastballs with two strikes somewhere in the middle of the plate, they're going to get hit. It doesn't mean they're going to be homers or runs are going to come across, but you run the risk that balls are going to be put in play."
Ryan, who lasted 3⅔ innings in his second-shortest start of the season, lamented how many innings he put on the bullpen. He required 95 pitches to record 11 outs, a result of deep counts and 25 pitches that were fouled.
He yielded multiple homers for the fourth time in his past eight starts, his ERA climbing above 4.00 for the first time.
"You throw a lot of strikes, and guys are going to swing and stuff happens," said Ryan, who has allowed 13 homers over his past six starts, the most by a Twins pitcher in a six-start span since Carlos Silva in 2006. "I think just more of an adjustment thing on my end. Just recognizing certain patterns a little bit more. We'll be fine on that front."
The Twins' offense nearly made up for all of it. Vázquez hit a leadoff single in the ninth inning, equipped with a bat flip, but pinch-runner Michael A. Taylor never advanced past second base.
