Twins blow ninth-inning lead, fall to Cardinals 3-2 after Edouard Julien’s costly error

The Twins were undefeated when leading after eight innings this season, unbeaten in 59 games, but a throwing error from Edouard Julien sent them to one of their most deflating losses of the season.

After Royce Lewis delivered a pinch-hit, go-ahead RBI double in the eighth inning, Twins closer Jhoan Duran surrendered two unearned runs with two out in the top of the ninth inning in a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Target Field. It was Duran’s second blown save of the season, and the first time the Twins dropped a series to St. Louis since 2001.

Nolan Arenado hit a one-out infield single in the ninth inning, a grounder up the middle that Julien couldn’t secure cleanly. Brendan Donovan, the next batter, bounced a ball to Julien. Looking to turn a potential game-ending double play, Julien flung a throw into left field, a throwing error that gifted the Cardinals two runners in scoring position with one out.

“First time that I’ve ever [missed] on a double-play throw arm-side,” Julien said. “I don’t know what happened. Maybe my feet weren’t turned enough, but I usually do that. I don’t know. It just happened in a bad moment.”

Duran struck out Tommy Pham, but as soon as fans stood up with two outs, Lars Nootbaar chopped a two-run single through the left side of the infield on the first pitch he saw. The stunned crowd of 28,018 went quiet.

BOXSCORE: St. Louis 3, Twins 2

MLB standings

It was the third time in eight days the Twins lost a game with a late lead. They coughed up a four-run lead in the seventh inning the previous Sunday in a 10-inning loss at Texas. Last Tuesday, they had two-run leads in the seventh and eighth innings in a loss at San Diego.

The Twins slipped three games behind first-place Cleveland in the AL Central standings with 32 games remaining.

“It’s going to be a hard loss,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “With games to come, there’s not going to be a lot of time to dwell on it. I hope our team is not going to dwell on it.”

Julien didn’t make excuses for his error, which turned a likely runner on first base with two outs if it didn’t turn into a double play into runners on second and third base with one out. He didn’t feel rushed attempting to turn the double play, he said. The second-base umpire didn’t block his field of vision.

“I’ve done that so many times, right?” Julien said. “I know where the base is. Just didn’t get it there and lost the game.”

An inning earlier, Lewis stood on second base after his go-ahead hit and busted out an array of dance moves. Castro opened the eighth inning with a seven-pitch walk before Lewis lined a changeup to the gap in left-center field against lefthander reliever JoJo Romero, easily scoring Castro from first base.

For all Lewis has accomplished in his brief major league career, his RBI double was his first career hit as a pinch hitter.

The Twins, however, failed to drive in Lewis. Jose Miranda flew out to right field, which advanced Lewis to third base with one out. Kyle Farmer entered as a pinch hitter, and the Cardinals countered with righty reliever Shawn Armstrong, who induced a foul out on his first pitch and escaped the inning with a groundout.

“We’ve got to find ways to score,” said Baldelli, whose team also failed to score with runners on the corners and one out in the seventh inning. “It’s challenging to win games when you score two runs and that’s it. We’ve done good. Our offense has been good overall, but that’s probably another way we could have won the game today.”

Cardinals starter Erick Fedde, a trade deadline acquisition, gave up a leadoff homer to Castro, the only run against him in six innings. In three starts vs. the Twins this year, Fedde has yielded two runs in 17 innings.

“I’m tired of facing him, to be honest with you,” Baldelli said before the game. “I am, like, genuinely tired of facing him.”

Twins righthander Zebby Matthews, making his third major league start, was one pitch from completing a clean five-inning outing with the bullpen warming. Then he left a slider over the plate in a 2-2 count to Victor Scott II, the No. 9 hitter in the Cardinals lineup who entered Sunday batting .147 with one homer in 109 at-bats. Scott pummeled the hanging slider to right field for a no-doubt homer.