Twins on wrong end of roller-coaster game in front of record crowd

MINNEAPOLIS -- Target Field played host to the largest regular-season crowd in the building’s history on Saturday -- and the Twins and Brewers were gracious enough hosts to provide the requisite drama.

The extra-innings portion of Saturday’s entertainment alone carried seemingly an entire game’s worth of emotional swings -- from the exhilaration and shock of Carlos Santana’s game-tying homer with the Twins down to their last strike in the 11th, to the immediate downswing of a crucial dropped and mishandled bunt that opened the floodgates for the Brewers minutes later.

All that took the packed stadium from a 3-1 Twins deficit to a tie game at 3 to, ultimately, the final 8-4 loss in 12 innings to the Brewers rather quickly in a dizzying set of extra innings that put the Twins in the loss column to open the second half.

“You have the big upswing, and you’re kind of fired up and you’re back in the game, and then all of a sudden you have a play like [the dropped bunt] happen. It’s certainly not a pick-me-up, I’ll tell you that,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.

It was the sort of play that isn’t often seen in the Majors for its improbable combination of both physical and mental miscue -- but it was arguably the key factor in the Brewers erupting for five runs in their decisive top of the 12th, as Milwaukee tacked on seven runs after the ninth inning to match their franchise high since at least 1974.

With automatic runner Sal Frelick on second base and leadoff man Blake Perkins having beaten out a mostly routine grounder to short for an infield single, Jake Bauers popped up a bunt attempt down the third-base line, where pitcher Steven Okert and third baseman Brooks Lee converged on the ball.

They initially had the ball drop between them -- but that should have been fine, since it was clearly headed foul. Instead, Okert reached down and nicked the ball just before it went foul -- officially making it a fair ball and an infield single to load the bases with none out. The Brewers took full advantage with a sacrifice fly and three more RBI knocks.

“Yeah, the ball is in the air, go back,” Lee said. “Seemed like he might have had a chance at it. I don't know if I would have had a chance at it. But regardless, that ball's going to roll foul, too. It happens.”

“It’s not a play you’re going to be able to replicate,” Baldelli said. “It’s not a play you’re going to do much about. Overall, we always want the infielders to take control and make the plays. That’s the way it always goes. It’s the way the hierarchy in the infield works when it comes to making plays, and that’s the way that we would prefer.”

All that dampened the thrill that jolted the stadium into a furious roar when Santana had taken his big swing off reliever Jakob Junis on a 2-2 count in the bottom of the 11th, crushing a sinker on his hands a Statcast-projected 391 feet to the plaza area behind the right-field bleachers.

“I know he doesn't have very good control of every pitch -- I've known Junis for a long time,” Santana said. “I love those moments. It's great. I love it when there's tension to the game. So I love that. In the past, I've had a lot of those situations.”

Living up to that “Slam-tana” nickname and with his wife and kids in the stands, not only did Santana slam that baseball into the Minnesota evening for the first game-tying homer in extra innings of his 15-year career, but after watching the ball fly, he also slammed the bat into the ground like a spinning baton, seemingly priming the Twins for an explosive start to the half.

“It's sick. We thought we were back in the ballgame again,” Lee said. “We're never out of a ballgame, but we're especially in it right there.”

Instead, the energy levels dropped as abruptly as that popped-up bunt did -- but a generally well-executing Twins roster without three of its everyday infielders will simply look at that momentum-swinging play for the one-off, rare occasion that it was and appreciate the energy in the dramatic game.

“I hope the games we play every day have a lot of tension and a lot of emotion,” Santana said. “Milwaukee has a great team. We have a great team. We fought. We fought until the last minute in the game.”