Julien’s late error costs Twins, who drop to 3 games behind Cleveland

Team MVP Willi Castro and Mr. Clutch Royce Lewis came through late for the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, seemingly securing them a series win over the St. Louis Cardinals. Instead, an Edouard Julien error undid it all and sunk the Twins, who also dropped to three games behind Cleveland in the American League Central and stayed tied with Kansas City, who also lost Sunday.

Willi Castro gave Zebby Matthews and the Twins an early lead over the Cardinals. On his fourth pitch of the game, St. Louis starter Erick Fedde didn’t get his 2-1 cutter in far enough and Castro hammered it into the right field stands for his 11th home run of the season and a 1-0 Minnesota lead.

However, Fedde quickly settled in and sat down nine of the next 10 Twins batters. The Twins only had one more real scoring chance against him when they loaded the bases in the fourth thanks to a hit-by-pitch and two walks. However, Manuel Margot, who only entered the lineup because Max Kepler was scratched late due to knee soreness, struck out to end the threat.

Matthews, meanwhile, was strong in his third big-league start. He gave up just three hits over the first four innings but, with two down in the fifth, hung a 2-2 slider over the plate and Cardinals center fielder evened the score with a homer to right.

Matthews still struck out a career-high seven batters on Sunday and gave the Twins a great chance.

After the Twins failed to score after getting runners on first and third in the seventh, they came through in the eighth.

It was Willi Castro starting it again, drawing a leadoff walk off of Cardinals’ lefty JoJo Romero. Royce Lewis then pinch-hit for Trevor Larnach and promptly laced an RBI double into the gap in left-center to make it 2-1 Twins. Lewis advanced to third on a flyout by Jose Miranda but the Twins again failed to get him home. That would prove costly.

Jhoan Duran, pitching for the second day in a row, gave up a one-out single to Nolan Arenado in the ninth. Then, he induced a possible game-ending double-play ball off the bat of Brendan Donovan, but Julien, the second baseman, airmailed the toss to second into left field, putting runners on second and third with one out. Duran struck out Tommy Pham looking but Cardinals right fielder Lars Nootbaar hit an elevated “splinker” into left to make it 3-2 St. Louis.

Carlos Santana led off the home half of the inning with a single but the Twins again failed to do anything with it, as closer Ryan Helsley closed out the win for the Cardinals.

Instead of keeping pace with the Guardians and moving a game ahead of the Royals, the Twins fumbled it away. They now will open a three-game series at home against the Atlanta Braves on Monday.

Bailey Ober (12-5, 3.54 ERA) is set to start the opener of the series against southpaw Max Fried (7-7, 3.57 ERA). First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m.