Multiple late mistakes doom Twins again in loss to Guardians

New York Times

01-05-2025

CLEVELAND — If Wednesday's 4-2 Minnesota Twins loss to the Cleveland Guardians felt familiar, you're not alone.
In the span of six batters in the seventh inning, a stretch that included dropped transfers by the catcher, a pitcher hit by a throw down to second base, multiple missed strike calls, a pitcher's costly throwing error, and a game-changing homer, the Guardians did as they seemingly always do and picked apart the Twins.
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In an instant, what had been an airtight, scoreless pitchers' duel devolved into another maddening Twins loss at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. Pablo López made a costly throwing error, Ryan Jeffers couldn't hold on to the ball during a frustrating inning, and Bo Naylor made it all matter, belting a three-run homer to put the contest out of reach. Two days after they started this series with a promising blowout win, the Twins need a Thursday victory to salvage a series split.
'It happens a lot to us when we come here,' Jeffers said. 'It feels like more than anywhere else we go. Every time we come here, it seems like there are games we should win and they'll hit a ball and it'll hit a bird. It's just the stuff that seems to happen here. Or the catcher throws the ball off a pitcher's glove arm and it leads to an inning that gets away.'
The frustration began with the strike zone.
To that point, López simply was outstanding and efficient. Leaning heavily on a four-seam fastball/changeup combination, López faced only two batters over the minimum in carving up Cleveland for six innings. He'd allowed a first-inning double to José Ramírez and a two-bagger in the sixth to Angel Martínez and nothing more.
Not only did López strike out six, he also was a weak-contact machine, inducing nine grounders of 12 balls put in play.
Facing Ramírez to start the seventh, López dotted a fastball down and in to the slugger only for it to be called a ball by plate umpire Malachi Moore. Two pitchers later, Ramírez ripped a 1-1 fastball for a leadoff single. Shortly thereafter, Jeffers dropped the transfer to his throwing hand, which allowed Ramírez to easily steal second base.
After López retired Tuesday's walk-off hero Kyle Manzardo on a spectacular catch by DaShawn Keirsey Jr. in the left-field corner, he quickly got ahead of ex-Twin Carlos Santana 1-2 in the count. López then dotted the same corner down and in to Santana, which resulted in another strike being called a ball.
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Three pitches later, Santana hit a slow chopper down the third-base line. López fielded the ball cleanly, and his throw to first nearly hit Santana and went down the first-base line to give Cleveland a 1-0 lead.
'They looked good from the mound,' López said. 'I'm not going to let that affect what I'm thinking right there. I went back and looked and some things could have been different. There's also no excuse (for) throwing the ball the way I did. I could have just not thrown it or I could have made a better throw.'
Ryan Jeffers was frustrated by the strike zone all game, but in particular in the seventh inning when four pitches in the zone went for balls. #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/wfTzfOi56F
— DanHayesMLB (@DanHayesMLB) May 1, 2025
With Brock Stewart on in relief, Santana stole second base easily when Jeffers' throw down struck his ducking pitcher on the back of his left (non-throwing) arm above the elbow. Jeffers then struggled to block a 1-2 sweeper in the dirt, which allowed Santana to move to third. The wild pitch was one of four consecutive balls thrown by Stewart, though one clipped the zone and could have been called a strike.
Arias stole second during a six-pitch strikeout of Daniel Schneemann. Naylor then worked a great at-bat versus Stewart, taking a close 0-2 pitch for a ball before hammering a 2-2 offering for a three-run homer.
Game. Set. Match.
'(The umpire) missed more that inning than he should have,' Jeffers said. 'He also missed plenty early in the game, too, that were in the strike zone. It's no secret. Those were in the strike zone. … I didn't do anything to help myself or the team that inning that kind of got away from us. But it's hard when the bottom of the zone is completely not there. It's frustrating. It's hard. It's hard for the pitchers. It's hard for the hitters. That seems to be a trend this year across the league.'
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Losing tough games in Cleveland has been a trend for the Twins for several seasons now.
The Twins have lost 10 consecutive one-run games at Progressive Field, a streak that dates to August 2020. They were walked off three times in Cleveland in 2024 and three others in 2022. Those figures don't account for the number of times the Guardians pulled ahead in their final at-bat in the eighth inning and handed the ball over to All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase for a shutdown ninth inning.
All of it seems like the American League Central's version of Groundhog Day.
'Until that homer, we're still right there in the game,' Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. 'Pablo threw some good pitches to Santana. We don't get them. We don't get the really close checked swing. It's fine. The two-strike pitch that gets called a ball … it looks like it was another good pitch. We don't get that, and then (Santana) hits a squibbler and we throw the ball away. We should focus on the things that we can control, and that's what's going to get us in position to win another game, just focusing on those things.'
(Photo of Bo Naylor: Nick Cammett / Getty Images)