The Twins fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4, in their series opener, Wednesday night.
Minnesota rallied to score three runs in the ninth inning, but it wasn’t enough.
A four-run seventh inning changed the game, breaking open what was a 2-1 game to that point.
Kyle Gibson (3-2) started for Minnesota. He was lifted after 6 2/3 innings. Gibson gave up five runs on nine hits. He walked three and struck out two. Gibson was tagged with the loss.
The Twins got on the scoreboard first. With two outs in the second inning, Eduardo Escobar doubled in Josmil Pinto to put the Twins on top at 1-0. Escobar was one of the bright spots for the Twins he was 4-4 on the night with 2RBIs and a double.
The Dodgers answered back in the third. A single from Hanley Ramirez scored Drew Butera on a close play at the plate. After review, Butera was ruled safe at home.
Butera is ruled safe and Gardenhire loses his first challenge of the year. Tied up at 1-1. #MNTwins
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) May 1, 2014
The Dodgers weren’t done yet in the third, they took a 2-1 lead when Adrian Gonzalez drove in Yasiel Puig.
The game stayed 2-1 until the top of the seventh, when Andre Ethier chased Gibson from the game with a bloop-double to score Matt Kemp and put the Dodgers up by two.
After Michael Tonkin replaced Gibson, Juan Uribe came through with a two-run single to push the lead to 5-1.
The Dodgers added one more in the eighth to push their lead to five.
Escobar came through in the ninth again for Minnesota. His career-best fourth hit of the night scored Sam Fuld who doubled. It wasn’t enough for the Twins. Trevor Plouffe then hit a two-run double to make it interesting at 6-4, but they couldn’t get any closer.
Cool for Dodgers to get to 10,000 wins tonight. I'll spare you the cheap joke about lakes and things like that.
— Derek Wetmore (@DerekWetmore) May 1, 2014
The cold temperature, threat of rain, a one-sided playoff game and the Game 7 of the Wild-Avalanche series likely led to an empty ballpark at the end of the game.
https://twitter.com/Brandon_Warne/status/461705856053022721
Games two and three are part of a split doubleheader on Thursday.
