Twins Lose Out on Historic First in Heartbreaker at Dodger Stadium

Dodger Stadium opened in 1962, and in the 63 years that have followed, the Minnesota Twins have never won a series in the Dodgers' home stadium. It’s hard to get any closer to accomplishing the elusive goal and still falling short than they did in this series. Minnesota split the first two games and entered the bottom of the ninth in the finale holding a 3-2 lead, yet fell 4-3 despite a top reliever coming into the game in Griffin Jax. Jax sported a 3.74 ERA coming in and had only allowed a run in four of his last 26 appearances. He dispatched Tommy Edman and Michael Conforto to reach out 27 with no one on base. Then the nightmare started with an infield single by Mookie Betts. Now, with the tying run on first, Minnesota elected to intentionally walk Shohei Ohtani, bringing up Esteury Ruiz, who pinch ran in the eighth and would have his first at-bat. Jax simply didn’t challenge him, walking him in five pitches. Thus, bringing up the reigning World Series MVP, Freddie Freeman, with the bases loaded and two outs. He delivered the goods with a two-run single to left field that dropped just an inch or two in front of the glove of a diving Harrison Bader to keep the Dodgers' undefeated series streak at home against the Twins alive with a 4-3 victory.

Jax was far from the only Twins pitcher to struggle against the Dodgers' bats, yet Chris Paddack threw an absolute gem. Six complete innings with four hits allowed, one earned run, and eight strikeouts. An excellent start that’s a great sign during an up-and-down season. Especially with fellow starter David Festa being placed on the injured list earlier in the day. A solo homerun in the first inning from Ohtani was the only blemish on his day. A home run that marked history for the Dodgers' two-way star. Ohtani became the first person to hit a home run in all three games of a series and start a game at pitcher in the same series since Babe Ruth did it back in June of 1921. It was also Ohtani’s fifth straight game with a home run, which is a career high. Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow matched Paddack pitch for pitch all afternoon, going seven innings with three hits, an earned run, and 12 strikeouts. That strikeout total is a season high for the 31-year-old and included ringing up Byron Buxton three times. Similar to Paddack, Glasnow gave up a solo home run to Royce Lewis in the third inning to tie the game. It was Lewis’s third home run in four games. 

The pitching struggles started instantly for both squads when the bullpen entered. Danny Coulombe came out first for Minnesota. He’s been excellent with a 0.63 ERA over the year. Today was not the day, he let up a walk and a hit while only recording one out before being replaced by Louis Varland. Varland then walked the first batter he faced to load the bases. Miraculously, Varland escaped the jam, only giving up one run, but the Twins did then trail 2-1. The Dodgers' pen then came out and performed even worse. Kirby Yates walked the first three Twins he saw and was promptly pulled from the game. The Twins came away with two runs from the loaded bases with Harrison Bader getting a clutch single to give the Twins the lead, 3-2.

Brock Stewart pitched the eighth for the Twins and nearly surrendered the lead. He found himself with bases loaded with two outs after giving up a hit to Teoscar Hernández, hitting a batter, and walking another. Yet he escaped unscathed with some clutch pitching in the two-out situation. It’s no surprise that with how dangerous this Dodgers’ offense is, giving them loaded bases three innings in a row spells disaster. It finally caught up to Minnesota in the ninth, and now the series victory in Dodger Stadium will have to wait for another year.