Bullpen implosion sends Twins further back in AL Central race
Even the best in Minnesota's bullpen are prone to disastrous nights, as was the case Saturday in Anaheim when Jhoan Duran served up a homer and Jorge Lopez surrendered a game-tying, two-run triple in the bottom of the ninth inning.
The Twins led 3-0 with Duran entering the game in the eighth inning. The flame-throwing rookie's dominance met baseball's most versatile star and Shohei Ohtani made him pay with a solo home run to center field.
Still, Duran got out of the inning with the Twins still leading 3-1. Lopez, the All-Star closer the Twins got at the trade deadline, then blew the save in the bottom of the ninth.
Lopez got the first batter on a groundout before allowing.a single to Jo Adell. Lopez got the second out and was one out away from giving the Twins a big road victory. Instead, Max Stassi singled and Magnus Sierra hit a two-run triple on a ball to left field that Nick Gordon missed on a dive.
Headed to extra innings 💥@Angels | #GoHalos pic.twitter.com/8nvyozxjUc
— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) August 14, 2022
Then in the 11th inning, with Emilio Pagan on the mound, Taylor Ward smacked a walk-off, two run homer to give the Angels a 5-3 lead.
A TAYLOR TANK!!!!#GoHalos pic.twitter.com/0wx49iFjkC
— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) August 14, 2022
The loss drops the Twins 1.5 games behind Cleveland in the AL Central.
Up next: Twins at Angels, 3:07 p.m. Sunday
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.