Eduardo Escobar’s sacrifice fly scored Aaron Hicks from third base in the top of the 14th inning and the Twins beat the Brewers, 6-5 Tuesday night in a 4-hour and 43-minute game in Milwaukee.
Brian Duensing gave up one hit in the bottom of the 14th, but earned his first save of his career.
It looked like Minnesota would win after taking a 5-4 lead on a sacrifice fly from Justin Morneau in the eighth, but Brewers rookie shortstop Jean Segura, who went 6-7 in the game, tied things up with a sharp run-single to center in the bottom of the ninth to make it, 5-all.
It was the second blown save of the season for Glen Perkins, who hit a batter, walked another and gave up two singles in the ninth. He got Carlos Gomez to ground out to short with the bases loaded to end the inning.
Minnesota connected for three home runs on the night.
The surge of power began with Ryan Doumit’s two-run homer in the second.
The ninth home run of the season for Josh Willingham gave Twins’ starter Scott Diamond a 3-0 lead in the third.
Hicks smacked his fifth homer of the season to put the Twins on top, 4-0 in the fourth.
Earlier in the game Hicks robbed ex-Twins centerfielder Carlos Gomez of a home run with an incredible leaping catch at the wall in right-center field. Gomez tipped his helmet in Hicks’ direction as he started to head back to the dugout.
The four-run lead quickly vanished in the bottom of the fourth.
Diamond allowed a two-run double to Aramis Ramirez, who would score to make it a 4-3 game two batters later when Jonathan Lecroy doubled him home.
Milwaukee tied game in the fifth when Ryan Braun drove home Segura and ended Diamond’s night with a triple to deep right-center.
Notes: Perkins blew his second save of the season; Segura is only the third Brewer to have a six hit game; The performance by Hicks was eerily similar to his game against the White Sox a little more than two weeks ago, when he robbed a home run from Adam Dunn and homered twice.
