MINNEAPOLIS -- Though the Twins stranded 11 runners on base against the Tigers in Sunday’s series finale and couldn’t finish off several late rallies in their 5-3 loss to split the four-game series, a near-miss in the seventh inning showcased how Minnesota’s deep stable of position players can offer numerous options for manager Rocco Baldelli’s strategic use late in games.

After being held quiet for six innings by Daniel Norris, the Twins’ bats were in about as good of a position as they could have hoped for in their seventh-inning rally. Two runs were already in, but with the Twins trailing by three, Nelson Cruz -- the Majors’ home run leader since 2014 -- was not in a position to hit after he had sustained a left wrist injury. (Starter Martin Perez left the game in the sixth after he was hit by a comebacker; the Twins said he has a left foot contusion, and he's listed as day to day.)

Eddie Rosario was instead announced as a pinch-hitter, prompting Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire to summon left-hander Daniel Stumpf from the bullpen. In response, Baldelli sent the right-handed Mitch Garver to the plate as another pinch-hitter.

In summary, the Twins burned Rosario -- the American League’s most productive home run hitter this season -- to set up what they viewed as a favorable matchup between Stumpf and Garver.

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“It's not something you take lightly, because [Rosario] is a weapon, and any time he goes up to the plate, there's a chance something really good happens for you,” Baldelli said. “I think Rosie understands the situation and what's going on in the game and that was a possibility. Again, it worked out all right. In those situations you're just trying to give yourself a chance and we had a chance.”

Such is the depth of the Twins’ power production at the moment, as Garver has eight homers despite having played 12 fewer games than most of the Twins’ starters, and Minnesota still had 11 combined homers left on its bench between Jason Castro (five) and Jonathan Schoop (six).

“We knew that was the way it could play out,” Baldelli said. “That was something that was discussed and ultimately thought it was a good matchup that we would take our chances with. It was good. [Garver] had a good at-bat. He had multiple good at-bats again, going into the game cold. We'll take it.”

And Garver almost helped Baldelli’s gambit pay off when he launched a 404-foot rocket down the left-field line that was originally ruled barely foul and confirmed as such following a 58-second review.

“We have a pretty good angle from where we’re sitting, and we thought it was probably -- it was pretty close to being over the pole,” Baldelli said. “And sometimes, those over-the-pole home runs are impossible once they’re called on the field to change either way. And obviously we didn’t have any angles to look at it.”

Garver eventually drew a walk before Marwin Gonzalez also took a bases-loaded walk to cut the Tigers’ deficit to two, but C.J. Cron struck out to leave the bases loaded.

The Twins also left the tying run in scoring position in the eighth inning when Ehire Adrianza reached base for the third time with a walk and Byron Buxton doubled to right for his third hit of the game before Willians Astudillo popped out to end the rally.

Including their 11 men left on base on Sunday, the Twins stranded 39 runners in the four-game series against the Tigers. But with Adrianza and Jake Cave also starting to see the ball better and Gonzalez heating up in May, the Twins’ deep lineup will continue to find production more often than not.

That just wasn’t the case on Sunday.

“Obviously didn’t get anything to fall or find any holes, but I was very pleased with the way we swung the bats -- just didn’t result in much,” Baldelli said. “We had our opportunities and weren’t able to put runs across early, but we continued at it and had good at-bats later in the game and gave ourselves a chance to tie and maybe win the game. We had chances, it just wasn’t our day.”