Miscues on bases, in field cost Twins in 4th straight loss

MINNEAPOLIS -- If the Twins are to snap out of this spiral and show that they have enough left in the tank to at least hold steady in the absence of two of their biggest stars in the lineup, they have talked about the need to execute and get back to playing the clean, aggressive baseball that they showed for much of this season.

This was decidedly not that.

Minnesota squandered the best start of rookie David Festa¡¯s young career through another sequence of disarray from the bottom of the sixth to the top of the seventh featuring a baserunning out at home and a two-run double off Manuel Margot¡¯s glove in left field, turning deficit into tie into an even bigger, decisive deficit in a 5-1 loss to the Braves on Wednesday.

The Twins¡¯ fourth consecutive loss and eighth in their past 10 games pushed their deficit in the AL Central to 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Guardians, while they have a three-game lead over the Red Sox for the final AL Wild Card berth.

¡°We've had some periods of time where we have not played our best and then we've come right back from it and played some pretty damn good baseball,¡± manager Rocco Baldelli said. ¡°It's about time we figure that out and get it done. I really don't want to watch these kinds of games anymore. No one does.¡±

But if those margins are to go in the directions they want, they can¡¯t afford miscues like the ones that cost them on Wednesday.

The Twins got better and better looks against Braves starter Chris Sale as the evening wore on, and even after not taking advantage of a bases-loaded opportunity in the fourth inning, they put themselves back in a good spot in the sixth, when they had four hits in the first five batters off the veteran left-hander.

They only got one run to show for it, though. After Margot¡¯s leadoff double, he was thrown out at home by a huge margin on Ryan Jeffers¡¯ hard-hit single to right field, on which Margot was waved home by third-base coach Tommy Watkins even after having to initially hold up at second to make sure the liner dropped in.

¡°Yeah, to be honest, it was kind of a surprise to me that they gave me the go sign, the green light,¡± Margot said through interpreter and coordinator of communications Mauricio Ortiz.

The Twins did eventually erase their 1-0 deficit thanks to a subsequent single by Jose Miranda and a two-out, game-tying knock by Willi Castro, but the early out at home looked to have done a fatiguing Sale a favor in helping to limit the damage by turning a potential first-and-third, none-out situation into a runner on first with one out.

¡°Generally speaking, you¡¯re going to be conservative there, but if you can score a run, you¡¯ve got to score a run right there,¡± Baldelli said. ¡°Even though it¡¯s a situation where you don¡¯t want to make the first out at the plate, I thought it was a challenging decision, ultimately.

¡°Tommy makes good decisions. I trust him. It¡¯s the hardest job in the game, and I¡¯m going to back him because he does good work for us. He¡¯s won a lot of games for us over there at third.¡±

Margot was also involved in the other key play, a half-inning later, when the Braves answered with a four-run rally. The Twins¡¯ depleted bullpen gave way again when Caleb Thielbar allowed a go-ahead double to Matt Olson as part of a concerning trend in which the Twins had allowed an MLB-worst 44% of inherited runners to score entering the game.

The issues compounded when Luke Williams lined a ball to the warning track in left that hit off Margot¡¯s glove as he contorted his body for a two-run double that put the game out of reach.

¡°I know that was a play I should have made,¡± Margot said. ¡°I'm not going to make any excuse. I didn't field it right. It was longer than what I expected.¡±

It¡¯s not the first time the Twins have seen this kind of stretch in which they haven¡¯t done themselves any favors, given their memorably streaky first half, which has also shown them that they can snap out of these funks rather quickly -- but they¡¯re not making it any easier on themselves.

¡°Sometimes, you¡¯re going to make mistakes [and] you¡¯ve got to win anyway,¡± Baldelli said.

They just haven¡¯t been in this recent stretch -- and it¡¯s cost them.