The Minnesota Twins fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night in the final game of the three-game series. The Dodgers quickly fell behind 5-0, but still managed to find a way to win.
The Dodgers tied the game up in the eighth inning and they knew they had a chance to win the game with all of the momentum in their favor.
“There’s no exact recipe,” Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner told the Associated Press. “It’s different ways every night. Getting ahead, coming from behind, getting down to our last strike. There’s a lot of fight. A lot of guys who believe if we still have outs, we still have a chance to win the game.”
The Twins offensively were led by Zack Granite and Brian Dozier who each produced RBI doubles. Joe Mauer also produced a two-run RBI single to increase the lead to 5-0.
But against the Dodgers, no lead is safe.
“They have the best record in the game. They’ve got a really good thing going on,” Twins manager Paul Molitor told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “They’re playing hungry, they’re playing loose. It kind of frees you up to let it fly.”
In the eighth inning, Granite discovered that he had a chance to end the inning with a one-run lead. The Twins center fielder made a running catch, but threw to the wrong base with a Dodgers runner struggling to get back to first base.
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“It’s tough. Tough to lose a game like that,” Granite told the Star Tribune. “Being one of the youngest guys, I want to do everything I can to help the team win, and I felt like I let the team down.”
Molitor had some words on the play from Granite.
“The throw beat Hernandez back to the base, which means judgment wasn’t poor,” Molitor told the Star Tribune. “It was a potential double play. But the fact that it was vacated……”
When did Zack realize that Mauer was in cutoff position, and not at first base?
“As I was letting it go,” Granite told the Star Tribune. “I saw Joe over where he was supposed to be, but I just couldn’t hold onto it.”
The Twins look to find a win as they find themselves 5.5 games out of first place. They open up a three-game series with the Oakland Athletics on Friday night.
–Scott Jordahl
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