Brewers put away Twins with five-run 12th inning before record Target Field crowd

The largest regular-season crowd in Target Field history noisily celebrated their team’s dramatic victory Saturday night in one of the most memorable games in the ballpark’s 15 years of existence.

Well, the Brewers fans did. But there were an awful lot of them.

The announced gathering of 41,679 fans watched seven innings of brilliant pitching and little offense, then feasted on a diet of dramatic moments for the final five innings. It all culminated in a five-run knockout in the 12th inning, when the Brewers strung five hits and a sacrifice fly together to earn an 8-4 victory over the Twins.

“We had plenty of times coming to the plate, plenty of different situations and scenarios where we could have found ways to win this game. But we didn’t,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We had to do a little bit more, you know — whack a base hit or maybe a double, and it turns the game. If you hit a few more balls on the barrel, you’re going to end up with a few more runs and win games like this.”

There were so many big minutes for the neighboring-state rivals to enjoy. For the Twins, they included Willi Castro’s one-man rally in the eighth inning to tie the score, and Carlos Santana’s down-to-the-last-strike two-run homer onto the right-field plaza in the 11th.

“I tried to make good contact. [Brewers pitcher Jakob Junis] doesn’t want to be giving home runs, so I tried to be a little bit patient,” said Santana, who moved into a tie for the Twins’ home run lead with his 14th of the season. “I’ve known Junis for a long time. I know he doesn’t have very good control of every pitch, so I tried to get a mistake.”

The home run was reminiscent of Carlos Correa’s walk-off blast off Devin Williams to beat the Brewers here last summer, or Jose Miranda’s homer off Josh Hader to win a game in 2022. Except for one thing: It only tied the game, giving Milwaukee another chance, which it didn’t waste.

The 12th opened with Sal Frelick serving as the courtesy runner on second base. After a Blake Perkins infield single that didn’t advance Frelick and a popped-up bunt by Jake Bauers that Steven Okert, Ryan Jeffers and Brooks Lee all pursued but didn’t catch, enabling Bauers to reach first and load the bases, the Brewers’ onslaught began in earnest. Joey Ortiz broke the tie with a sacrifice fly off Ryan Staumont before Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang and William Contreras each followed with singles to the outfield, scoring five runs and putting the game out of reach.

“We did not execute and play well fundamentally late in the game, and that can lead to losing the game. It is the big leagues, and every play matters,” Baldelli said of the mishandled bunt, which Okert inadvertently touched while it was in fair territory. “I was happy with the way we fought on, but we’ve got to make the plays if we expect to win.”

The Twins did manage to score again, when Diego Castillo singled home Manuel Margot. But the game ended, perhaps appropriately, on another memorable play: left fielder Chourio’s diving catch of Byron Buxton’s deep line drive.

The thrilling finish hid the fact that for much of the night, the game was a pitchers’ duel. Milwaukee starter Freddy Peralta gave up two hits, both singles, over six innings, while Pablo López nearly matched him. The Twins righthander knocked a quarter-run off his ERA by giving up one run and four hits over seven innings.

“It jumpstarts the rest of the season for Pablo. He was pleased with the way he was throwing the ball,” Baldelli said. “Overall, it’s definitely a very positive day for him.”

Once the starters departed, however, the drama arrived, first courtesy of Castro.

The All-Star doubled in the eighth inning, moved up a base on a wild pitch and, with Milwaukee’s infield pulled in to stop him, touched the plate just under catcher Contreras’ tag, a one-man rally from a one-run deficit.

“I thought, ‘If you have a good jump, you can make it.’ It probably wasn’t the best jump ever, but I was anticipating that contact, and I went full speed,” Castro said. “I knew it was going to be tight. He didn’t touch me. If he touched me at all, it was on the jersey, but my hand was already there.”

BOXSCORE: Milwaukee 8, Twins 4 (12)

That play was nearly identical to the one that broke the tie for the Brewers in the 11th inning. Cole Sands threw a wild pitch, allowing courtesy runner Ortiz to move to third, and he scored the tiebreaking run by aggressively breaking for the plate on Turang’s grounder to second base, beating Austin Martin’s throw to the plate and sliding under Jeffers’ tag.

Turang moved to third on a single by Contreras, and, after Okert replaced Sands, scored on Christian Yelich’s surprise bunt up the first-base line.

That seemed like enough, and the Twins got down to their final strike in the bottom of the inning. But Santana crushed a low sinker from Janus over the right-field seats, a gift, he said, for his family among the record crowd.

“I love those moments. It’s great. I love when there’s tension to the game,” Santana said. “I’ve had a lot of those situations, so I’m a little bit focused. I’m 0-for-3 and trying to make it good. Great swing, great game.”