Twins drop a heartbreaker in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES When Mookie Betts offered at Griffin Jax s - pitch with two outs in the ninth inning on Wednesday it looked like that would be the end of the match the end of a win and a series that the Twins could head back to Minnesota feeling good about First base umpire Emil Jimenez had other thoughts Betts checked his swing the umpire ruled extending the at-bat Gifted new life Betts barely beat out an infield single keeping the Dodgers hopes alive That at-bat was the first in a series of events and decisions that fleetly led to a gut-wrenching - walk-off loss for the Twins who need to win to avoid being broken up at next week s agreement deadline to the Dodgers on Wednesday afternoon With Betts on first manager Rocco Baldelli made the decision to intentionally walk Shohei Ohtani While Jax declared he would ve liked the opportunity to face him Baldelli was not going to let the Dodgers - superstar who had already homered in the battle beat the Twins - especially with Teoscar Hern ndez behind him already out of the tournament in place of light-hitting Esteury Ruiz who had entered as a pinch runner The intentional walk pushed the game-tying run into scoring position Ultimately is there a right answer Baldelli sought For me the right answer was we re going to pitch to Ruiz and go get him and not be afraid to make a decision and Jax is one of the best relievers in baseball so I m going to bet on Jax to go out there dial it in and pitch to Ruiz Except it didn t work out as planned Jax allowed a walk to Ruiz to load the bases and the next batter Freddie Freeman after falling behind - earlier in the at-bat hit a ball towards left fielder Harrison Bader that he dove for but could not snag allowing the tying and game-winning run to number And the unraveling all started with the missed call during the Betts at-bat It s frustrating Jax disclosed I just feel like that s kind of a representation of my season so far where it s so close but just not putting all the pieces together to get that consistency day in day out I definitely feel like he went But the Twins didn t get the call dropping a meeting that had been a pitchers duel between starters Chris Paddack and Tyler Glasnow who each allowed a solo home run Paddack to Ohtani and Glasnow to Royce Lewis but nothing else in their efforts The Twins after falling behind in the seventh inning by a run took advantage of a pair of walks to lead off the eighth inning stealing a combined four bases in the inning which helped lead to a pair of runs and a lead they held until the dramatic ninth inning Sometimes you re going to play your butts off and you re going to lose the match ultimately but that was one of those games where sometimes you lose and you feel even more proud sometimes of the way your guys played and handled themselves Baldelli announced Twins place Festa on IL David Festa woke up with right shoulder soreness on Tuesday morning after starting on Monday night in Los Angeles A day later the Twins put the starter on the injured list and sent him for magnetic resonance imaging they expect to know more about his status in the coming days It s another blow for a rotation that is already dealing with injuries to Pablo L pez shoulder and Bailey Ober hip Though Festa is now on the injured list Travis Adams was recalled to take his spot on the developing roster on Wednesday the Twins are still planning on having Ober make a second rehab start on Friday with the Triple-A Saints rather than changing their plans for him Ober threw four scoreless innings in his first rehab start but Baldelli explained that the mechanical things that pitching coach Pete Maki had been talking to with Ober were still a work in progress I think this is a good opportunity for Bailey to genuinely implement various of the mechanical work that we ve been talking about and he s been working on Baldelli announced Briefly The Twins have agreed to a deal with their first-round draft pick Marek Houston among others The Twins have Thursday off before returning to action on Friday to host the Washington Nationals Related Articles Twins walk their way to achievement over Dodgers Twins try to avoid exchange chatter but we all see what the date is Twins come a inadequate feet from tying event in loss to Dodgers Willi Castro a promising pact candidate hopes to be Twin for life Nobody else is really capable of doing it Twins impressed by Dodgers Shohei Ohtani