Twins' strong but overworked bullpen finally falters

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Twins have a good bullpen. But even good bullpens don’t stay perfect forever.

For the fifth time in nine games, Minnesota’s starter did not get an out in the fifth inning on Sunday, and this time the bullpen couldn’t bring it home. A furious Astros comeback turned a big early lead into a gutting 9-7 loss in the finale of a brief season-opening homestand at Target Field. The Twins fell to 3-6 on the young season.

“Some losses are different than other losses,” said manager Rocco Baldelli. “This is going to be a tough one that’s going to bother a lot of people in our clubhouse, there’s no doubt about it. And I can’t think we’re wrong for thinking that. It’s a game we should win. It’s a game we need to win.”

The home team had plenty of chances to salt away what would have been a feel-good win. But Minnesota didn’t score a run after the fourth, and Houston kept clawing back. The winning run scored on Jose Altuve’s single through a drawn-in infield in the 10th, but the defining moment came an inning earlier. And it was set up an inning before that.

With a two-run lead after seven, Baldelli elected to use Jhoan Duran to face the 8-9-1 hitters in the Astros’ order. Duran put together a clean eighth inning, getting a strikeout and two groundouts, setting up the meat of the order for Griffin Jax in the ninth. Baldelli said the choice was for matchup reasons.

It did not go well. Jax, the team’s best reliever a year ago, allowed a line-drive single to Isaac Paredes, bringing up Yordan Alvarez. Twins pitching had kept Alvarez in check all weekend, but not this time. Jax threw a 97.5 mph fastball at the top of the zone, and Alvarez hammered it into the second deck in right-center field to tie the game.

“I know he'd been struggling on fastballs up pretty much all series,” said Jax. “Maybe he was over it and ready to get on top of a pitch like that. I'll go look at it in a little bit and see if I got it to the right spot, but you can't really second-guess yourself. It's over.”

The Twins went quietly in the ninth, and the Astros made them pay in the 10th. Chas McCormick sacrifice bunted the automatic runner to third, Jake Meyers walked and Altuve singled for the winning run. It was the culmination of a comeback that had many causes.

Starter Chris Paddack threw effectively for four innings, but the first five batters of the fifth reached base, and he was done. Cole Sands limited the damage, allowing only one more run to score, but a comfortable six-run lead had been cut in half.

The four relievers after Sands combined to permit one run through the eighth, finishing with Duran -- who was superb -- but all the while, the Twins could not add on.

“You don't want to lose that type of game,” said catcher Ryan Jeffers. “You can't lose that type of game. But we’ve got [Kansas City] tomorrow. We’ve got three night games against K.C., which will be nice, good games to get up for, get excited for. This early in the season, really the whole season, you can't linger on [things] like you can maybe in other sports. … The crazy thing and the reality of baseball is you've got a game tomorrow, so stewing on it is not going to do any [good].”