Astros win ALDS as Twins bats go cold again in 3-2 defeat in Game 4

Several Twins players stood arm-in-arm in the dugout as they watched the final outs of their season drop one by one.

Facing the defending World Series champion Houston Astros, the Twins needed one big hit and it never came. Carlos Correa slammed his helmet on the dugout bench when he lined out to shortstop in the seventh inning, the hardest-hit ball of the game.

Ryan Pressly, the Astros closer, struck out the side in the ninth inning and a summer at Target Field ended at 8:47 p.m. Wednesday with a 3-2 loss in Game 4 of the American League Division Series. The Twins totaled three hits — rookies Royce Lewis and Edouard Julien homered off José Urquidy — and 14 strikeouts.

The Astros advanced to the AL Championship Series, winning three of four games in the best-of-five set, for the seventh straight season. The Twins haven't reached the ALCS since 2002.

"It was a tough series to lose," Correa said. "We felt like we had a lot of chances. It didn't go our way, so we've got to get better this offseason and show up to spring training ready because we're going to compete against those guys again. If you want to get to a World Series, you've got to beat that team."

All seasons end abruptly when it doesn't end with a title and a downtown parade. This was a Twins team that broke the franchise's 18-game postseason losing streak, clearing a cloud over the organization. They swept the Toronto Blue Jays in the wild-card round and claimed their first playoff series victory in 21 years.

Inside the clubhouse were hushed conversations and the sounds of teammates patting each other on the back after hugs.

"We finally got a new sense of hunger," catcher Ryan Jeffers said. "We can talk how we want to continue to move forward in the postseason, but now we've really got a sense of what it's like and what it takes to get here."

An excellent pitching staff carried the Twins all season, but they had trouble stopping Astros sluggers Yordan Alvarez and José Abreu.

Twins lefthander Caleb Thielbar entered in the fourth inning to face a lefty-heavy portion of the Astros lineup. Alvarez, who homered off Thielbar in Game 1 of the ALDS, muscled a fastball for a leadoff single.

Two batters later, the righthanded Abreu smashed a two-run homer off the facing of the second deck in right field for his third home run in the past two games.

"I feel terrible," Thielbar said. "I know it's a team game, but I feel like I cost us a chance at Game 5. I just feel like I let down my teammates, the clubhouse staff, everyone, fans, everyone."

In an elimination game, the Twins decided the best strategy with their pitching staff was a bullpen game with a full bullpen at their disposal. Joe Ryan faced eight batters in two innings, surrendering a two-out homer to Michael Brantley in the second inning.

Trailing by two runs after Abreu's two-run homer, Twins reliever Chris Paddack injected energy into the dugout. Paddack, making his fourth appearance of the year after recovering from Tommy John surgery, pitched 2 ⅓ scoreless innings with four strikeouts.

Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran combined for three more scoreless innings.

"There were a lot of tears in here earlier," pitcher Sonny Gray said. "There was a lot of disappointment that everyone's going home. At the same time, tomorrow, two weeks from now when we're watching the World Series, we'll realize exactly how close we were."

The Twins led in the first inning after Lewis connected with a changeup that Urquidy left over the middle of the plate and drilled it into the left-field seats for a solo homer. As Lewis ran up the first-base line, he looked toward his teammates in the dugout and offered the famous Michael Jordan shrug.

It was Lewis' fourth postseason homer in six games, trailing only Kirby Puckett (five in 24 games) for the most playoff homers in franchise history.

As much as Lewis fired up the sellout Target Field crowd, Urquidy made it a short-lived moment. The Astros righthander, their No. 4 starter, retired 14 of his next 15 batters after the first-inning homer. He had a stretch where he struck out five consecutive batters.

At some points, it looked like Urquidy was just messing with Twins hitters. Before a pitch to Jeffers in a 0-2 count, he squatted behind the mound as the pitch clock ticked closer to zero. Then he stood up, toed the rubber and began his delivery in one fluid motion.

"Experience played a big role," Correa said. "Some experienced guys over there had some good at-bats with people on base. We didn't get the chance to do the same, and they won the series."

Julien, who hit a double off the center-field wall in the first inning and drew a walk in the third inning, lifted a changeup in the sixth inning for an opposite-field solo homer. The announced crowd of 40,977 roared to life as Julien pumped his right arm rounding first base.

The sixth inning ended with the Twins in a one-run deficit after Max Kepler was called out on strikes — pitch tracking systems said the pitch was too far inside — while Lewis, who drew a two-out walk, was in the process of swiping second base. The called third strike cost Kepler a chance to hit with a runner in scoring position in a full count, and Correa loomed on deck.

"We didn't lose today because of a call or two calls," Baldelli said. "There have been other games I might tell you something different. I don't think that was it."

The Twins didn't have another batter reach base. The last pitch, to Kepler, was another called third strike.