Twins' baserunning errors make team work overtime for victory over Rangers

Winning erases everything, even mistakes. So the Twins weren't too concerned about the baserunners they lost in the 11th and 12th innings on Sunday, though both players acknowledged that they misread their situations.

The Twins' chances of scoring in the 11th inning, for example, were doused when Joey Gallo, pinch running for Christian Vázquez and serving as the extra-innings runner on second base, tagged up on Matt Wallner's foul popup near the Twins dugout. Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe hustled over and caught the ball while stretching over the dugout rail.

Gallo took several steps toward third base, hoping Lowe couldn't recover in time, but then changed his mind and scrambled back to second. Lowe easily threw him out.

"It was a great play. I feel stupid doing that, but I thought, going to the dugout and making a play over the railing, just took off trying to be aggressive," Gallo said. "If he tilts over that railing or stumbles, it's going to be a really tough play for him. But he turned pretty quick. I tried to scamper back. Obviously I wish I didn't do that, but sometimes you take risks and they don't work out."

An inning later, Donovan Solano was on second base and Michael A. Taylor on third when Jorge Polanco hit a grounder to third baseman Ezequiel Duran. Taylor scored, but Solano ran into an out rather than hold his base.

"I have to run on contact. Both of us are going, no matter what. They didn't have a play at home, and I was already on my way to third," Solano said. "I saw him try to throw to first, but he saw me at the last second. Maybe I should try to stop in a rundown, but I tried to avoid him."

The play was costly when Max Kepler followed with a single, a hit that could have scored Solano with the winning run if he was still at second. Instead, the inning ended when Carlos Correa hit into a double play, and the game went on.

The Twins' plan Sunday was for Bailey Ober and Dallas Keuchel to eat up all nine innings of work, and for the bullpen to rest up for the Cleveland series.

It only half-worked.

The game lasted 13 innings, and the Twins wound up using Jhoan Duran, Caleb Thielbar, Emilio Pagán and Dylan Floro.

It was worth it to earn the win, Thielbar said. But the bullpen might be a little thin for a day or two.

"It doesn't set us up very good for the next few days. A lot of us have been working pretty hard lately, so you never want to play that many innings. Thankfully, we got the win," Thielbar said. "That's all the really matters, but it's definitely going to be tough on us for the next couple of days. Hopefully we can do everything we can to recover over the next 24 hours."

Jorge Alcala, the often-injured reliever who hasn't pitched for the Twins since May 14, will play a big role for the team this week.

He will be helping their injured hitters prepare to return.

Alcala will throw a couple of live bullpens this week, with teammates like Alex Kirilloff and Byron Buxton standing in the batter's box, Twins head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta said.

"We'll have basically a rehab team to hit off of him, so it kind of works out really well for guys to be able to see him," Paparesta said of Alcala, who suffered a fractured right forearm in May. "We'll probably look to get him into some rehab assignments after that."

Both hitters probably will depart to St. Paul for rehab stints, too, in early September.

Meanwhile, Chris Paddack, the righthander who underwent Tommy John elbow surgery in June 2022, has been throwing too, and felt no soreness afterward. He will get some live bullpens soon and could also go on a rehab assignment.

"It's been well-documented that he's been probably pitching for a while with a sore elbow, and now he finally has one that feels good. Most people, if you have something that feels good, you want to go out and see what it's going to do," Paparesta said. "He's done enough for me right now to say that he's ready to go for 2024."

Michael Boyle gave up four first-inning runs on two homers and the Saints lost at Omaha 5-3. Austin Martin had his third consecutive two-hit game for St. Paul and is hitting .379 in August.