Twins' youth movement continues to flourish despite loss

MINNEAPOLIS -- Had one baseball carried a matter of feet more to left field in the ninth inning, Wednesday’s game would have been another dramatic act in the show being put forth by the Twins’ next young core.

Instead, Matt Wallner’s bid for a third consecutive home game with a game-winning homer fell into the waiting glove of Detroit left fielder Akil Baddoo at the warning track. One plate appearance later, Donovan Solano grounded into a double play that ended the Twins’ bid for a crazy comeback in an 8-7 loss to the Tigers that resulted in a split of the two-game set at Target Field.

“Even if we have three or four innings where it doesn't look so hot, all of a sudden, we kind of catch it, and we find something we're looking for, and we stack some good at-bats and we hit some balls good,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “So we'll take that. But we needed more.”

All that drama became necessary after the Twins allowed an early 4-0 lead to slip away behind a rare tough outing from Kenta Maeda, who recorded only 12 outs, and a four-run seventh against Griffin Jax, whose recent struggles continued when he allowed a triple and two homers to cede the lead to the Tigers.

It’s been more than a month since the Twins have had both their highest-leverage relievers -- Jax and Jhoan Duran -- at their best together. They’ve managed to this point, but are still looking for more consistent execution down the stretch.

“You can’t let one game or two games or five games get in the way of closing things down and winning games for your team,” Baldelli said. “Those guys know that. I don’t think it needs to be said to them. Overall, both have been very good for us for a long time, and they’ll adjust.”

Still, Minnesota's rookie coalition continued its attack, with seven combined hits from Edouard Julien and the newly healthy Royce Lewis, along with that 340-foot flyout by Wallner that would have been a walk-off blast in 10 MLB parks, according to Statcast.

Julien’s first career four-hit game included a two-run single in the second inning that helped the Twins race out to the 4-0 lead against Detroit starter Reese Olson. The rookie second baseman also led off the ninth inning with a single before Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler hit back-to-back blasts to turn an 8-4 hole into an 8-7 deficit with two big swings.

“I think we have a pretty solid team right now and, one through nine, everybody can hit and our pitchers are going good and we have a lot of good, young players,” Julien said. “It’s pretty fun to watch this team go right now.”

Lewis then cracked a single to left for his third hit of the day before Wallner and Solano made the final outs -- and all this came a day after Lewis knocked an RBI single in his return from an extended oblique injury and Wallner crushed his first career grand slam to lead the Twins to victory.

Sure, the best version of these Twins will involve big contributions from Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton -- but instead of the team relying on its stars, the dynamic youngsters have added plenty of excitement, too.

“Just let the kids play,” Lewis said on Tuesday. “That term is perfect for our team. We've got a lot of young guys. Let the kids play.”

But behind them, neither Jax nor Duran has thrown a clean inning since July 23, a span encompassing 16 appearances between the Twins’ two bullpen workhorses -- nine for Jax, seven for Duran. The last time both made clean appearances in the same game was July 15.

“I just feel like I'm not locating where I need to,” Jax said. “When you’re leaving pitches middle, it doesn’t matter who you are facing. Big league hitters are going to do damage on it. I’m getting ahead of guys, but not being able to put them away right now is strictly from location.”

The return of Caleb Thielbar in his best form has helped, but the Twins’ leverage bullpen corps appears more precarious than ever -- which only emphasizes the importance of the Twins getting Brock Stewart back at his best in September, too.

The Twins have yet to put it all together for an extended stretch this season -- but the young hitters are doing their best to make enough noise to help the team through this stretch run.