Milwaukee knocks around Twins for 6-3 victory at Target Field

Three times the stormy weather interrupted the Twins' comeback attempt against the Brewers.

But as the act of God was trying triply hard to convey, a Twins victory simply wasn't in fate's plans.

The Twins lost 6-3 to Milwaukee on Tuesday at Target Field, where an announced crowd of 37,183 fans — a mix of Twins' and Brewers' faithful — went scrambling for the shelter of the concourse multiple times throughout the evening.

"Really, I think it came down to they had a couple big swings," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said, "and we didn't have those same big swings."

That first big swing came in the first inning for the Brewers, as Twins starter Josh Winder walked Milwaukee's second batter before Andrew McCutchen smacked a two-run home run to right field.

Jorge Polanco hit a leadoff homer in the second inning off Brewers' starter Jason Alexander, but shortly thereafter, the rain made its first appearance, interrupting Gio Urshela's at-bat. The same happened in the fourth. Nick Gordon had previously driven in a run to tie the game at 2 only to again have precipitation dash Urshela's at-bat.

Urshela said for the first delay that lasted about 29 minutes, he tried to stay sharp hitting in the cage. The second one was only about eight minutes with the tarp never fully unfurled, so he didn't have to do as much waiting.

Each time, he returned to the at-bat only to end the inning with his out, but he took being the harbinger of showers in stride.

"I was like, 'Oh my God, it's me again,'" Urshela said of the second delay. "It was funny. … You don't see that every day."

Winder allowed three runs off two hits in the fifth, which ended up being the game winners. A leadoff walk came back to haunt him on Jonathan Davis' RBI single, and Willy Adames blasted a two-run homer to put the Brewers up 5-3.

At least he didn't have to stay warm through that final delay – in which lightning, strong wind and heavy rain made for a 1:06 stoppage – as Trevor Megill took the mound to start the sixth.

"It's been a long time, but I've definitely had one before I've learned from," Winder said of prior rain-delay outings. "But the two was kind of weird, strange. And then the third one came along, too, when I was out. It was definitely some weird stuff going on."

Megill allowed another Brewers' run from Jace Peterson's RBI base hit in the sixth. Luis Arraez hit a double in the seventh inning and scored on Byron Buxton's force out to grant the Twins a third and final run. But that was all the scoring for a game that lasted more than four hours.

As if the loss wasn't enough, two Twins players also left the game with injuries. Max Kepler fouled a ball off his right leg in the sixth inning – incurring a right knee contusion – and had Gilberto Celestino replace him in the outfield in the seventh. Reliever Jovani Moran also picked up a right calf contusion when pitching the eighth inning. Baldelli said both will have more check-ups Wednesday.

Beyond the rain delays, there was another layer of intrigue to this game's atmosphere. At several points throughout the evening, Milwaukee fans started "let's go Brewers" chants, which Twins fans tried somewhat fruitlessly to drown out with boos. Every big Milwaukee hit drew hearty cheers, as did Milwaukee reliever Josh Hader's three strikeouts to end the game.

Baldelli's quote about Urshela's two halted at-bats sums up this game as a whole for the Twins.

"Pretty unique situation," Baldelli said, "and hopefully we don't have to deal with that anymore."