After Lee's slam, Twins offense takes foot off gas as frustrating month continues

MINNEAPOLIS -- The good news for the Twins is that the Phillies won’t return to Target Field until 2028.

The unfortunate news is that there are still 13 games left in August, which is quickly turning into a month they'd like to forget.

After taking a 5-0 lead on Brooks Lee’s first-inning grand slam and Kody Clemens’ moonshot in the third on Sunday, the Twins’ bats went cold. They went hitless for four innings and watched the Phillies score seven unanswered runs to complete a three-game sweep with a 7-5 victory.

“That’s an extremely frustrating loss,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks since the calendar flipped from July to August. The Twins are now 4-10 in the month, which includes some close losses and other stretches where the team hasn’t played playoff-caliber baseball, despite their position on the fringe of the American League Wild Card race.

“We got walked off twice in Seattle. We got walked off in Milwaukee. And we did not play well in this series,” Shelton said. “We didn't play well at the Field of Dreams Game. We went 1-for-14 yesterday with runners in scoring position. Today, we got the lead and we were not able to add on and we did not hold. So yeah, it's very frustrating.”

The Twins remain just 1.5 games out of the final AL Wild Card spot, although they’ll have to leapfrog five teams to secure their first playoff berth in three years.

“I think everybody in this room has played this game long enough to know that all it takes is a spark,” designated hitter Josh Bell said. “We’re just kind of waiting for that right now. I don’t think the vibes in here have changed at all. I think we believe in ourselves. We’ve seen it all season long. One big win and we can take that and run with it so we’re just waiting for it.”

For five innings on Sunday, it looked like that big win was within their grasp, thanks in large part to Lee. One pitch after he missed a grand slam by inches down the right field line, Lee hit the ball a few feet farther to the left for a home run that put the Twins on top 4-0 in the first inning.

The blast was Lee’s 18th of the season, extending a career high. It was his second career grand slam -- the first came almost one year ago to the day: August 17, 2025, off his old fishing buddy, Chris Paddack.

When Clemens’ solo homer made it 5-0, it looked as if the Twins were on their way. But after Trevor Larnach’s two-out single in the fourth, the bats went silent. The next 12 batters were retired -- five by strikeout -- as the Twins’ hitters tried to figure out the array of bullpen arms the Phillies sent at them in waves.

Even when they did get a runner on, a baserunning blunder took them out of a potential scoring opportunity. Royce Lewis drew a two-out walk in the eighth inning, their first batter to reach base since Larnach in the fourth.

Lee followed with a grounder up the middle. Second baseman Bryson Stott made a diving stop, but Lewis saw he was going to be safe and went into the base standing up. That cost him, however, when he slightly overran the bag. Stott had flipped the ball to shortstop Edmundo Sosa, and Sosa slapped the tag on Lewis for the third out.

In the ninth, the Twins put two runners on with one out against ex-teammate Jhoan Duran. But Minnesota's former closer struck out Ryan Jeffers and Byron Buxton to end the threat and the series, leaving the Twins to grasp for ways to get out of their current swoon.

“I think it’s just the mentality that we’ve got to get back after it tomorrow,” said Bell, a veteran of 11 Major League seasons. “We’ve still got a ton of season left. A tough stretch the last couple of weeks but a lot more baseball to play, and we’ve just got to get going, got to get hot, start playing our brand of ball.”