Bases-loaded walks erase strong start for Twins in loss to Giants

The San Francisco Giants beat the Twins again on Tuesday, not with an opening flourish like Monday's victory but walk by walk, run by run to a 4-3 win.

This time, they did it after three Twins pitchers walked four Giants runners in the sixth inning, two of them forced home with the bases loaded.

An inning later, Michael Conforto hit his second homer in two nights — this one a two-run shot — to turn what had been a 3-0 Twins' lead through five innings into a 4-3 comeback lead.

The Twins now have lost six of their last eight games, all to California teams after a six-game trip to Los Angeles and Anaheim.

"Pretty sure everybody in here feels like we should be winning," Twins designated hitter Byron Buxton said. "A couple games haven't gone our way. Nothing we can do about it. It ain't going our way. Still got to come back out here tomorrow and compete. Our vibe is perfectly fine. Everybody still is high and upbeat and we believe in ourselves."

Buxton's 10th homer this season provided a 2-0 lead in the first inning , in what was expected to be a pitcher's duel between the National League and American League ERA leaders: the Twins' Sonny Gray and the Giants' Alex Cobb.

The Twins took a 3-0 lead on Michael A. Taylor's solo homer in the Twins' fifth.

Unlike Monday when the Giants kept that first-inning lead, the Twins squandered theirs. The home team called upon six pitchers including Gray, and three of them walked four Giants in the sixth inning.

"The walks in the sixth inning, that's a big part of the story tonight," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of Jovani Moran and Brock Stewart walking in runs. "We've walked some guys this year and not in spots we want to. We were lucky to even be in the ballgame when you're putting four guys on in an inning."

Gray entered Tuesday with a 4-0 record and a 1.64 ERA that led all qualified big league pitchers this season. A 12-year veteran, Cobb entered the night 3-1 with a 1.94 ERA improved his record to 4-1.

Gray pitched five innings, allowed two runs, six hits, struck out six and exited with an ERA bumped up to 1.82 after allowing two runs.

"I was managing things OK up until that point," Gray said of his sixth-inning walk to J.D. Davis. "I felt good through five and I go out there in the sixth and it just kind of unraveled on me for three hitters. Bullpen does a good job just to leave it there. Honestly, if you get out of that inning and we still have the lead, it's a job well done."