For eight innings, the Brewers had no runs, no hits and no signs of the momentum they hoped to bring north after an uplifting weekend at Wrigley Field.

Then Eric Sogard floated a single to center field leading off the ninth, and it was about to be a whole new ballgame.

Kenta Maeda’s no-hit bid turned into a no-decision and an extra-inning game after the Brewers’ rallied for three runs with help from a crucial error, but the Twins triumphed in the 12th, 4-3, at Target Field on Tuesday night.

• Box score

There are no moral victories in Major League Baseball, but the Brewers could say they showed fight while being denied what would have been a fourth consecutive come-from-behind win, as well as a winning record for the first time this season. Instead, Milwaukee fell to 10-11 after abandoning the designated hitter and emptying the bench of position players before going down on Jorge Polanco’s jam shot against Brewers reliever David Phelps. Brewers shortstop Orlando Arcia, playing behind the mound as part of a five-man infield that had Ryan Braun revisiting his roots at third base, made an acrobatic pick and throw to make it close.

Unfortunately for the Brewers, the Twins had started the inning with just the right man at second base. Speedster Byron Buxton dashed home with the winning run.

“Anyone but Buxton, I think we might still be playing,” Sogard said.

Still …

“Our heads are not low,” Sogard said. “Obviously, the first eight innings did not go the way we wanted, but we continued to fight and were able to get things going and get into extra innings. We made some fantastic defensive plays in extras, but unfortunately it still wasn't enough. Even though we lost, we battled. Our heads are high tonight.”

In a duel with Corbin Burnes, Maeda met a Brewers offense that appeared on the rise, coming off three straight victories in a charged, four-game series against the Cubs that was capped by back-to-back weekend wins in which Milwaukee tallied double-digit hits. But the 32-year-old right-hander shut that unit down until the ninth with a flurry of changeups. He set a Twins record with eight straight strikeouts during one stretch from the third inning through the end of the fifth, one shy of the American League record for consecutive strikeouts and two shy of the Major League mark.

After Christian Yelich walked with one out in the top of the first inning, Maeda retired 21 batters in a row before Omar Narváez worked a 10-pitch walk in the eighth that pushed Maeda’s pitch count to 106. He recovered to strike out Ben Gamel -- No. 12 of the night for Maeda -- before inducing Luis Urías’ fielder’s choice bouncer to end the inning. He was three outs from becoming the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter at the Brewers’ expense since the Tigers’ Justin Verlander on June 12, 2007, when now-manager Craig Counsell batted leadoff and went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts. The only other pitchers to no-hit the Brewers were the Twins’ Scott Erickson in 1994 and the Royals’ Steve Busby in 1974.

How dominant was Maeda? Of the first 26 men to dig into the batter’s box against him, only one managed to hit a ball past the infield. It was Gamel, who flied out to shallow center field to end the second inning at 77.3 mph off the bat, according to Statcast.

“That was one of the best games I’ve ever seen pitched in baseball,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s facing a team that he just faced last week with good hitters. He dominated. He did everything you can possibly do. He was in total control. He’s showing us all of the different dimensions to what he can do out on the mound.

“Even for people who are in baseball, to watch a performance like that does put you a little bit in awe. I don’t even know what else to say. He was that good.”

But the Brewers’ 27th batter, Sogard, led off the ninth by reaching for Maeda’s 115th pitch -- a changeup at the bottom of the zone -- and knuckling it over a leaping Polanco to the outfield grass. With Twins closer Taylor Rogers on for Maeda, Avisaíl García followed with a double, Yelich walked, Keston Hiura dumped an RBI single into center field, and all of a sudden the Brewers had the tying run in scoring position with nobody out.

They had the tying run on the scoreboard moments later, after pinch-hitter Jedd Gyorko bounced a double-play ball to shortstop and second baseman Ildemaro Vargas misfired the relay. Yelich scored on the error for a 3-3 tie.

After that, the managerial wheels started spinning faster, and both defenses did everything to strand those free runners at second base. Brock Holt, that last man off the bench for the Brewers, made a terrific pick at third base of first baseman Gyorko’s low throw to keep the game going. A half-inning later, Twins right fielder Max Kepler made a sensational diving catch to freeze Gyorko at third.

“I thought we battled hard and they did, too,” Counsell said. “They got an unbelievable pitching performance from their starter. … We had a nice ninth inning with some good at-bats, but in the end, we weren't able to score in the extra frames. That was the story. It wasn't how they scored, it was just that we weren't able to score.”