Twins unravel in 6-run 5th, hurt by walks

NEW YORK -- Simply put: The Twins lost control in the fifth inning and it proved costly as they lost to the Mets, 9-6, on Wednesday night at Citi Field.

Entering the inning, Minnesota had a 1-0 lead and right-hander Jake Odorizzi had a no-hitter going. However, in-between innings, manager Rocco Baldelli told Odorizzi that he could be taken out of the game if he were to get into trouble.

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“The National League game does pose problems for that plan. Nothing is as clean as it would be in typical American League games,” Baldelli said.

But things started to unravel after Mets left fielder Jeff McNeil was thrown out after trying to score on a wild pitch. Odorizzi walked pitcher Noah Syndergaard to reload the bases.

“It was an unfortunate time for that to happen, I guess,” Odorizzi said. “It’s not too often that you see something like that happen. I’ll be happy to get back to American League-style baseball. I can tell you that much.”

Enter Twins left-hander Andrew Vasquez, who was recalled on Wednesday, and he couldn’t retire a batter. He hit Brandon Nimmo with a pitch, scoring Amed Rosario. Pete Alonso followed and he drew another walk scoring J.D. Davis. Vasquez couldn’t throw a strike when Robinson Cano came to the plate. Cano walked on four pitches, scoring Syndergaard.

“I wanted to attack, get the out and get out of the jam,” Vasquez said. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my stuff today. … I’m ready to get back out there as soon as I can and compete.”

In comes right-hander Trevor Hildenberger to face Michael Conforto, who walked to send home Nimmo. Wilson Ramos then had his second at-bat of the inning and singled to right, scoring two more runs.

"I don't think we put even one take sign on. I think we just did a great job of being patient, and doing what it took to score some runs there," Mets manager Mickey Callaway said.

Before the Mets, the last team to have seven-plus consecutive batters reach base by walk or hit by pitch was the Yankees at Seattle on April 27, 1994 (eight straight in third inning).

It would get worse for Minnesota two innings later. Left-hander Martin Perez had problems retiring a batter. In fact, there were no outs and the bases were loaded when Conforto singled up the middle, driving in two runs. Two batters later, Luis Guillorme came home on a McNeil single to make it an eight-run game.

The Twins made it an interesting game by the eighth inning. Syndergaard couldn’t retire the three batters he faced that inning, allowing two runs to score before he left the game. Jeurys Familia entered the game and allowed two more runs to score. Jake Cave highlighted the scoring with an RBI single.

“Besides that fifth inning, I thought the rest of the evening was a battle on our end,” Baldelli said. “Our guys maintained. We continued to press on. We kept ourselves in the game somehow, even at the end. We are still out there with a chance to at least stay in the game.”