Twins rally from four runs down, take late lead, lose to Dodgers on bases-loaded walk in 12th

LOS ANGELES – Trevor Larnach crushed a three-run homer to tie the score in the eighth inning, Byron Buxton doubled home another tying run in the ninth, and Christian Vázquez actually gave the Twins a lead with a bases-loaded walk in the 10th. The Twins used up a month's worth of late-inning heroics Monday, and they still couldn't overcome their routine misfortune in their least favorite ballpark outside the Bronx.

This time, their misfortune was the umpires' fault, the Twins believe.

The Twins, who trailed by four runs after three innings, scored in four consecutive late innings but when they faltered in the 12th, the Dodgers didn't. Trayce Thompson, mired in an 0-for-30 slump, drew a bases-loaded walk from Jorge López and Los Angeles handed the Twins their seventh consecutive Dodger Stadium loss, 9-8 in 11 innings.

Afterward, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli didn't blame López, who in trying to finish his second inning of work got ahead of Thompson — who has a .125 batting average and 30 strikeouts in 56 at-bats — before throwing three consecutive pitches outside the strike zone, giving the Dodgers a walkoff walk.

"That happens. We were in the driver's seat in that at-bat," Baldelli said. "Ultimately, Jorge pitched pretty well today and did good work for us and just lost that hitter."

But what bothered Baldelli was what the Twins considered an obviously, egregiously wrong ruling by first base umpire Shane Livensparger two innings earlier. With the score tied at 6-6 in the eighth inning and Miguel Vargas on second after a two-out double against Griffin Jax, David Peralta smashed a bouncer down the first-base line.

The Twins' judgment? "It was foul. It was foul," insisted catcher Vázquez, who was looking directly down the line. "Clearly foul. Way foul."

Livensparger's call? Fair ball. Vargas scored from second base, Peralta had a dubious double, as far as the Twins were concerned, and Los Angeles took a 7-6 lead.

"I'm not going to sit here and say that's the only play that mattered. But when the play that leads to them getting a late run is just foul at every point, basically, along the way after the first bounce, I mean, it's a big reason why we lost the game," Baldelli said. "They were awarded a double on a ball that was not close to being fair."

Such calls are not reviewable by replay umpires, so while the Twins complained, they had to play on. They did push across a tying run in the ninth inning, as Carlos Correa drew a one-out walk from Evan Phillips, and two pitches later pinch runner Michael A. Taylor scored from first on Buxton's double to the center-field fence.

But that was the Twins' last run-scoring hit. Their only hit in extra innings came on a sacrifice bunt attempt, and despite their repeated rallies, they went 4-for-17 with runners in scoring position and stranded 15 runners on base.

And in the 12th, they lost when Baldelli's strategy of intentionally walking dangerous Dodgers hitters Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy to load the bases backfired.

"My sinker has so much movement," López said of his 3-2 pitch to Thompson. "I throw that thing, and it looks like it's right in the middle. And at the end, it just took off. I mean, that's part of my strength."

It was a quiet finish, a walkoff walk, to a crazy game, one that was far more tense than the Mookie Betts Bobblehead crowd of 49,749, biggest throng to see the Twins this year, would have imagined 11 innings earlier.

Will Smith and Muncy hit back-to-back home runs in a three-run first inning against Pablo López, and Muncy then took over the major league lead in homers by belting another one, his 14th, in the third.

But Jorge Polanco kept the Twins alive, first by singling, stealing second base and scoring on Kyle Farmer's hit to center in the second inning. Polanco followed with a solo home run off Noah Syndergaard in the fifth inning, and he doubled in the eighth, setting up Larnach's game-changing blast.

"It was a great game," Vázquez said. "We came back and it was awesome to see the guys grind those runs. Larnach — that homer was big for us."

The Twins had pulled within 6-3 when Dodgers reliever Caleb Ferguson threw a bases-loaded wild pitch in the seventh inning, scoring Vázquez from third. And with Buxton on third base and Polanco on second in the eighth, Larnach blasted a Yency Almonte fastball 415 feet into the seats in right-center, tying the score with one swing — his second game in a row with a three-run homer.

With the score tied 7-7 after nine innings, Dodgers reliever Phil Bickford put the Twins in front in the 10th. With Larnach on second base to open the inning, Bickford walked Farmer. Willi Castro laid down what he intended to be a sacrifice bunt, but when Bickford fielded the ball, turned to throw to third base and then changed his mind, Castro reached first base before the ball could arrive.

Vázquez then simply waited out a four-pitch, run-scoring walk to give the Twins their first lead of the night, though he had to duck out of the way of a couple that nearly hit him.

But with the bases still loaded and nobody out, the Twins couldn't add on from there. Bickford struck out Donovan Solano and Alex Kirilloff — two of the three strikes called on Kirilloff by Phil Cuzzi appeared to be on pitches outside the strike zone — and retired Taylor on a long fly ball.

Still, with Jhoan Duran on the mound for the Twins, that might have felt like enough. It wasn't. With one out, J.D. Martinez lined an 0-2 breaking ball for a single to center, scoring Smith from second base, and the marathon game continued. Bickford pitched scoreless innings in the 11th and 12th before Jorge López finally faltered, dropping the Twins to 1-11 all-time at Chavez Ravine, counting the 1965 World Series.

"That's a tough game to go through, to battle through, to compete in — and then lose," Baldelli said. "Those games are difficult. There are a lot of things we can be pleased about when you play like that because I thought our guys played well, overall."