Rally falls short in another loss to Brewers

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Milwaukee claims first sweep at Target Field

Caleb Durbin of the Milwaukee Brewers is ruled safe after stealing second base as Brooks Lee of the Twins holds up the ball in the ninth inning of Sunday’s game at Target Field. STEPHEN MATUREN — GETTY IMAGES

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By Betsy Helfand

bhelfand@pioneerpress.com

The Twins’ offense broke out for eight runs and 18 hits, which tied their season high. That effort helped them claw their way back into a game that looked like it was going to be another laugher, making the game close in the later innings.

But in the end, none of that amounted to the thing that matters most: getting a win. The Twins’ comeback attempt fell short on Sunday as they fell 9-8 to the Milwaukee Brewers at Target Field, swept in a series in which their pitchers gave up a combined 35 runs.

“We’ve been allowing way too many runs,” shortstop Carlos Correa said. “We’re better than that and we’re going to fix it.”

By the time their offense burst out on Sunday, they had already dug themselves into a deep hole for the third straight day.

The Twins (37-40) were led by Byron Buxton, who hit a game-tying home run to lead off the bottom of the first inning and another home run in the sixth inning. Buxton now has six home runs in his past six games and yet the team is 1-5 in those games.

He had plenty of help offensively on Sunday. Brooks Lee, the day after his 19-game hitting streak was snapped, had a career-high four of them, and so, too, did Correa. Ryan Jeffers hit a home run in the fourth inning and in the eighth, Ty France brought the Twins within one with a two-run blast.

That came after the Twins missed an opportunity to push more runs across in the first inning. They scored two runs before loading the bases with one out and their rally was halted there. That lead was short lived.

After using an opener to begin the game — reliever Danny Coulombe began the game and gave up a run in the first inning — starter David Festa entered and immediately gave up a home run to Brewers (43-35) first baseman Rhys Hoskins to tie the game.

“It’s a little different,” Festa said of coming out of the bullpen. “But it had no impact on any of the results.”That was the beginning of a of a tough outing for Festa, who allowed eight runs for the second time in four starts since he was called up to take the rotation spot of injured ace Pablo López.

In the third inning, Lee could not handle two straight balls hit his way at third base. The next batter, Christian Yelich, then hit a chopper over his head, giving Milwaukee the lead back for good.

“Our defense can do a better job,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We have to continue to amend what we’re doing for the better, make adjustments and figure this thing out. … We’ve been giving up some runs and we’ve been too far behind in these games.”

Milwaukee scored two runs in the third, another in the fourth and four more in the fifth inning against Festa before Griffin Jax eventually entered in the sixth inning to bail him out of a jam.

Strong performances from the bullpen over the next few innings gave them a chance to creep back into the game but after leaving a pair of runners on in the eighth inning, they left two more on in the ninth to drop their ninth game of their last 10.

“Panicking is not going to fix anything,” Correa said. “But at the same time, you’ve got to recognize that things aren’t going great and you’ve got to adjust and address them. Right now we haven’t bene doing many great things consistently, but we have the talent to be able to turn it around.”