In retrospect, Ryan Jeffers said, he very much liked the pitch that Griffin Jax made to Yordan Alvarez in the ninth inning.
Too bad Alvarez liked it even more.
The Astros slugger bashed that high fastball into the upper deck in right field Sunday, dramatically tying a game the Twins once led by six runs, and Houston went on to steal a 9-7 victory at Target Field.
“Right at the top of the zone — it’s a really good pitch. I have zero hindsight looking back on” that devastating at-bat, Jeffers said. “I’m calling those same pitches again. [Jax] executed really well. … But that’s kind of how this game works.”
Sure does so far this season for the Twins, who right now can’t even get a blowout victory right.
Minnesota built a 7-1 lead through four innings Sunday, then watched the Astros make it disappear. Once Alvarez sent the game to extra innings, Jose Altuve singled home the go-ahead run in the 10th, and another scored when Jake Meyers stole home, allowing Houston to win two of the three games in the series.
“We’re going to have to have a little bit of thick skin, going to have to kind of weather it and deal with it,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “Some losses are different than other losses. This is going to be a tough one that’s going to bother a lot of people in our clubhouse.”
People like starter Chris Paddack, visibly angry with himself as he walked off the mound without retiring a batter in the fifth inning. He escaped a three-hit first inning with only one run and faced only 10 batters over the next three innings. Just as he seemed to be cruising to victory, he opened the fifth by walking eighth hitter Zach Dezenzo. Myers followed with a double, the Astros added a couple more singles, and suddenly, for the fifth time in nine games this year, the Twins’ starter was out without recording a fifth-inning out.
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