MILWAUKEE – Dylan Bundy has been a major-league starting pitcher for seven seasons, but had never faced the Brewers. Joe Smith has been a big-league reliever for twice as long and has faced absolutely everybody.
So whether it's new information or an overdue reminder, now they both know: The Brewers like to hit dingers.
Milwaukee, second in the National League in home runs, connected twice off Bundy and once off Smith, and that firepower — plus a gift run from the Twins in the ninth — carried the Brewers to a 7-6 victory over the Twins at American Family Field.
The loss narrows the Twins' AL Central lead to 2 1/2 games over Cleveland and 3 over Chicago, while Milwaukee widened its lead to 3 games in the NL Central over St. Louis.
Hunter Renfroe drilled a second-inning slider from Bundy for three runs, and Luis Urias rocketed a third-inning fastball into the second deck in right field for another one. And after the Twins briefly took a lead in the fifth, Kolten Wong sailed a fastball from Smith into the second deck in right field, tying the game and setting up a battle of the bullpens down the stretch.
That battle is not one the Twins are equipped to wage, at least not against the Brewers. Devin Williams and Josh Hader, each of whom suited up for the All-Star Game last week in Los Angeles, easily retired the six Twins they faced.
Jhoan Duran, on the other hand, loaded the bases in the eighth inning and was the recipient of a favorable call on a close pitch to Willy Adames that would have driven in the go-ahead run. When Duran ended the inning by dropping a 3-2 curveball in the bottom of the zone, the Brewers loudly complained.
It didn't matter when Tyler Duffey was assigned the ninth inning of a close game for just the fourth time all year. Andrew McCutchen lined a one-out single to left, Wong walked on a curve in the dirt, and Renfroe walked the bases loaded on a curve well outside.
That set up Urias, who lofted a 2-2 fastball down the right-field line. Alex Kirilloff caught it just inside the foul line, not even 300 feet from the plate, but his throw home from an awkward angle bounced five times before reaching the plate, well after McCutchen had touched it.
Duffey absorbed the 20th bullpen loss of the season for the Twins; only last season, when they had 23 bullpen losses at this point en route to a last-place finish, have the Twins had more.
Meanwhile, whatever the platelet-rich injection did to his sore knee, it certainly didn't affect Byron Buxton's bat. The center fielder's first at-bat since the All-Star Game looked almost identical to his last one on that stage: far and farther. Buxton opened the game by punishing an Ethan Small fastball roughly 450 feet, landing on the walkway behind the left-field seats.
Buxton also doubled off Small in the third inning, igniting a rally that produced two runs when Jose Miranda smacked a double down the left-field line. And the prospect of Buxton facing Small a third time surely worried Brewers manager Craig Counsell, who abruptly pulled the lefthander in the fourth inning with Buxton due up.
That made sense in the moment — veteran righthander Trevor Gott retired Buxton on a long fly ball to end the inning — but cost the Brewers eventually. With two outs in the fifth, Gott walked Kyle Garlick, gave up a single to Jose Miranda, and then left a fastball in the middle of the plate that Gio Urshela hammered over the center field wall, 411 feet away, temporarily putting the Twins back in front.
Miguel Sano's first game since April 30 was a quiet one. Batting ninth for only the second time in his career, the eight-year veteran flew out deep to center field and struck out before being lifted for Luis Arraez in the sixth. Sano, recovered now from surgery to repair the meniscus in his left knee, also made a handful of routine plays at first base.
