“We played a damn good series out here. We played a heck of a series, played a lot of good baseball against one of the best teams in the game,” Baldelli said. “I’d argue we didn’t just compete, but we outplayed them for a good portion of the series. And that’s what I want to see. I want to see more of that as we go forward.”
Who knows whether he will see Jax, or Bader, or Chris Paddack after next week’s trade deadline? Paddack, whose contract expires in November, pitched six strong innings against the Dodgers, giving up four hits and making only one mistake. That was an 0-2 curveball to Ohtani what rather predictably wound up near the top of the left-field bleachers, his 37th homer of the year.
“I talked to my agent yesterday. I’m here until they tell me otherwise. I’m still excited to be a Twin,” Paddack said. “After the deadline, everybody can kind of be humans again. Hopefully having success against such a good team, I can build off that and take it into my next one.”
Royce Lewis also homered, his third of this weeklong road trip, and doubled against Dodgers righthander Tyler Glasnow, who had allowed only two other extra-base hits to right-handed hitters this season. Then he drew a walk off reliever Kirby Yates to ignite what appeared to be the Twins’ game-winning rally in the eighth.
Yates also walked Brooks Lee and Byron Buxton, loading the bases with nobody out. Castro hit into a double play that scored pinch-runner DaShawn Keirsey Jr. with the tying run, and Bader bounced a chopper off home plate that carried over the mound for a hit, scoring Lee with the go-ahead run.
Then came the ugly finish, and all the missed chances — starting with first-base ump Jiminez’s call on a checked-swing appeal.