Manuel Margot plays hero, then goat as Twins lose 3-2 to Giants in finale before break

SAN FRANCISCO – Manuel Margot spoiled the perfect game, then spoiled the shutout. Then, unfortunately, he spoiled the possible victory for the Twins.

Margot lined a single into left field to lead off the seventh inning, the first Twins player to reach base against two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell. Then he doubled in the ninth against San Francisco Giants closer Camilo Doval, driving in two runs to tie the score.

But when Mike Yastrzemski hit a long fly ball to right-center to lead off the bottom of the ninth, Margot attempted a risky diving catch that didn’t come close. As the ball rolled to the wall, Yastrzemski raced to third base, with Max Kepler relaying the ball to second baseman Brooks Lee. The rookie, hoping to catch Yastrzemski as he slid to the base, threw the ball over the Giants dugout and out of play.

Yastrzemski was awarded the plate, and the Twins walked away with a painful 3-2 loss at Oracle Park and just a split of their six-game road trip against a pair of teams with losing records.

“Brooks is fine. He’s a very good decision-maker,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of the errant throw that ended the game. “He’s got a very good, accurate throwing arm. I trust his decisions.”

The bigger problem on that strange play, the manager pointed out, occurred in the outfield.

“We [didn’t] play the simple cut the way we need to,” Baldelli said of Margot’s decision to dive, “and we didn’t have anyone backing up, which was also not right.”

BOXSCORE: San Francisco 3, Twins 2

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So consider it a teaching moment, and not the only one the Twins absorbed Sunday. Take the valuable lesson Chris Paddack learned, for instance.

“Talking trash to Snell earlier this week,” the Twins righthander said of his former Padres teammate. “I won’t do that again.”

Snell retired 18 Twins in a row before Margot lifted that line drive into left field, earning the lefthander standing ovation from the announced 34,115 in attendance. A double play immediately erased Margot, and Snell finished his 21-batter, seven-inning day by striking out Lee, his eighth of the day.

Snell only went to a three-ball count to three batters and needed only 80 pitches to through seven innings — his longest outing since pitching seven no-hit innings against the Rockies (and for the Padres) last September.

“Perfect through six — it was really cool to watch him do his thing out there,” Paddack said. “I guess he activated the Cy Young switch — [that’s] what I texted him after the game.”

Paddack wasn’t bad, either, though he wasn’t nearly as efficient. He needed 90 pitches to finish five innings and held righthanded Giants hitters to a 1-for-10 day. But an unearned run scored in the second inning after Carlos Santana dropped a relay throw from Brooks, and former Twin LaMonte Wade Jr. doubled in the third inning, then scored on Patrick Bailey’s two-out single.

It looked like that was enough for a Giants victory until the Twins rose up against Doval in the ninth. Diego Castillo, making his Twins debut, drew a leadoff walk, and pinch hitter Trevor Larnach doubled him to third. After a Matt Wallner strikeout, Margot jumped on a two-strike slider and bashed it to the wall in left-center.

He tripped about halfway to third base, jumped up, and had the presence of mind to run back to second, knowing the relay through from the outfield would beat him to third.

“It was a big swing that tied the game for us,” Baldelli said. “We were getting no-hit, and then we made it a great ballgame. It can happen kind of bam-bam, real quick in this game.”