Minnesota Twins postgame report: Late HR lifts Brewers over Twins

The Minnesota Twins held a late lead in their series finale with the Milwaukee Brewers, but an eight-inning bomb forced Minnesota to settle for a split.

Minnesota Twins fans are probably getting sick of this refrain by this point in the season. On Wednesday, the Twins were able to get off to a strong start against the Milwaukee Brewers and jumped out to an early lead in support of Kyle Gibson.

Although they took a 5-3 lead into the eighth inning, Sergio Romo would give up a three-run home run to Trent Grisham that led the Brewers to a 6-5 victory.

Although the end result was a letdown for a team looking to extend its lead in the American League Central, there were plenty of positives that the Twins could take away from this game at the plate.

The Twins got off to a great start in the first inning when Mitch Garver led off the game with his 23rd home run of the season and Eddie Rosario followed up with his 26th home run of the year to give Minnesota an early 2-0 lead off Gio Gonzalez. After Keston Hiura would chip into the lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the first, the Twins would get that run back on Miguel Sano‘s 21st home run of the season in the top of the third to set the score at 3-1.

Gibson would battle the Brewers from that point allowing a RBI single from Eric Thames in the bottom of the third, but settling down from that point to go five innings with three earned runs on eight hits, three walks and three strikeouts.

The Twins would continue to pile on support for Gibson with a bases-loaded single by Jorge Polanco that drove in Max Kepler and Jonathan Schoop to make it a 5-2 game. After Thames drove in Ryan Braun on a RBI single in the bottom of the fifth to chip into the lead at 5-3, the Twins would turn to their bullpen to close things out.

Sam Dyson came on for his second straight scoreless appearance since coming off the injured list and Trevor May would pitch a scoreless inning to set things up for Romo. A throwing error by Polanco would put Ryan Braun aboard to lead off the inning and a single by Hernan Perez would set the stage for Grisham.

The promising rookie would get a hold of one of Romo’s frisbee sliders and send it into the upper deck in right field for his second home run of the season and put the Brewers ahead. Matt Albers would put a scare into the Milwaukee faithful by loading the bases in the top of the ninth, but would get C.J. Cron to fly out to Lorenzo Cain for the final out in a disappointing 6-5 loss for the Twins.

Fortunately, the Cleveland Indians lost to the Boston Red Sox earlier in the day, meaning the Twins continue to hang onto their lead in the AL Central. They’ll look to get back on the winning track with a trip to Globe Life Park for a four-game weekend series beginning Thursday. The Twins have not announced their starter for any of the four games, but the Rangers will lead off with right-hander Pedro Payano (1-1, 3.86 ERA).