Rocco Baldelli had never seen it before. Mitch Garver didn't know how to explain it. J.A. Happ shied away from even thinking about it too hard.
Whether bewildering, confusing, uncomfortable or all of the above, yet another late-inning collapse snatched another needed victory from the Twins' clutches, as they lost 6-3 in 10 innings Tuesday to the Texas Rangers.
The Twins are now 0-6 in extra innings, bungling another lead with bullpen letdowns and infield errors.
"To be honest, I've never really seen it all kind of lumped together like this," said Baldelli, the Twins manager. "The truth of the matter is, you probably look at a lot of these plays individually, and you'd say, 'That's a one-off situation or a one-off play,' and that's probably what makes the most sense to me to be very clear on that.
"When they happen in a cluster like this, I don't think anyone can truly know why that's happening."
The Twins took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first off Byron Buxton's two-run homer. Willians Astudillo added a solo shot in the fifth to make it 3-1. But while the Twins waned, the Rangers revived in front of an announced crowd of 8,022 at Target Field.
Besides the home runs, the Twins' only other hit in nine innings was a line-drive single by Garver in the fourth. He also singled in the Twins' scoreless 10th.
The Twins led 3-1 through eight innings, but Willie Calhoun homered off Taylor Rogers to lead off the Texas ninth. Josh Donaldson bobbled a ground ball at third base to allow Charlie Culberson to reach first, which led to Isiah Kiner-Falefa's game-tying sacrifice fly.
