LOS ANGELES — Trevor Larnach crushed a three-run homer into the right-field seats to tie the game in the eighth inning, Byron Buxton doubled home another tying run in the ninth, and Christian Vázquez actually gave the Twins a lead with a bases-loaded walk in the 10th. The Twins used up a month’s worth of late-inning heroics Monday, and still couldn’t overcome their routine misfortune in their least favorite ballpark outside the Bronx.
The Twins, who trailed by four runs after three innings, scored in four consecutive late innings but when they faltered in the 12th, the Dodgers didn’t. Trayce Thompson drew a bases-loaded walk with two out and Los Angeles handed the Twins their seventh consecutive Dodger Stadium loss, 9-8 in 12 innings.
Jorge López took the loss, but it was a strategic move that backfired as much as his pitching. The Twins issued intentional walks to both Freddie Freeman and, with two outs, MLB home run leader Max Muncy, trusting López to retire Thompson. But after getting ahead 1-2, López threw three straight outside the strike zone, and the Dodgers had a walkoff win.
The night was far more tense than the Betts Bobblehead crowd of 49,749, the biggest throng to see the Twins this year, would have imagined after watching Will Smith and Max Muncy hit back-to-back home runs off Pablo López in the first inning, then Muncy taking over the major league lead in homers by belting another one, his 14th, in the third.
But Jorge Polanco kept the Twins alive, first by singling, stealing second base and scoring on Kyle Farmer’s hit to center in the second inning. Polanco followed with a solo home run off Noah Syndergaard in the fifth inning, and he doubled in the eighth, setting up Larnach’s game-changing blast.
The Twins had pulled within three runs when Dodgers reliever Caleb Ferguson threw a bases-loaded wild pitch in the seventh inning, scoring Vázquez from third. And with Buxton on third base and Polanco on second in the eighth, Larnach blasted a Yency Almonte fastball 415 feet into the seats in right-center, tying the game with one swing.
The Dodgers immediately took the lead again, however, with Miguel Vargas and David Peralta lining back-to-back two-out doubles against Twins righthander Griffin Jax, the fourth time in six appearances this month that Jax has allowed a run to score.
But again, the Twins answered. Carlos Correa, vociferously booed all night, drew a one-out walk, and pinch runner Michael A. Taylor scored the tying run when Buxton doubled to the center-field fence. This time, Polanco and Larnach went down quietly, and the game remained tied into extra innings.
Reliever Phil Bickford put the Twins in front in the 10th. With Larnach on second base to open the inning, Bickford walked Kyle Farmer to open the inning. Willi Castro laid down what he intended to be a sacrifice bunt, but when Bickford fielded the ball, turned to throw to third base and then changed his mind, Castro reached first base before the ball could arrive.
Vázquez then simply waited out a four-pitch, run-scoring walk to give the Twins their first lead of the night, though he had to duck out of the way of a couple that nearly hit him.
With Jhoan Duran on the mound for the Twins, that might have felt like enough. It wasn’t. J.D. Martinez hit a one-out single to center, scoring Smith from second base. Duran picked off Martinez before the inning could get any more dangerous, but the marathon game continued.
After his early wildness, Bickford finished strong. He got out of the 10th by striking out Donovan Solano, then Alex Kirilloff on three pitches — two of which were called strikes that appeared to drift outside the strike zone. Taylor ended the inning with a flyout to center. Bickford then struck out Buxton and Polanco in the 11th before retiring Farmer on a line drive to second, and after Castro popped up a bunt to begin the 12th, he retired Vázquez and Kirilloff on flyouts.