MILWAUKEE -- The Twins spent the Trade Deadline trying to build a bullpen capable of carrying them through games like this.
Saturday night offered another glimpse of just how deep that group has become.
Minnesota might not have had its preferred collection of late-inning arms available after using five relievers to protect a lead Friday night. It didn’t matter much. Travis Adams and Kody Funderburk each struck out the side, and the Twins’ bullpen gave their offense four innings to find a breakthrough before the Brewers scratched across the deciding run against Jeff Hoffman in the eighth inning of a 4-3 loss at American Family Field.
Even that came with little damage done.
William Contreras opened the eighth with a check-swing bloop single that dropped into shallow center field before pinch-runner Brandon Lockridge stole second. Andrew Vaughn followed with a single through the right side to bring him home.
“Those hits happen,” Hoffman said. “Just got to try to stop it from there.”
The run snapped an otherwise dominant stretch for Minnesota’s relievers, who continued to look considerably different from the group the Twins carried through the first half.
One night after Tommy Nance, A.J. Minter, Hoffman, Andrew Morris and Yoendrys Gómez combined for four scoreless innings to secure an 8-6 victory, Minnesota turned to a different collection of arms on Saturday.
Adams entered for Taj Bradley in the sixth and struck out Andrew Vaughn, Christian Yelich and Cooper Pratt in order. Funderburk followed in the seventh and, around a Brice Turang single, struck out three more.
The Twins finished with 14 strikeouts -- seven from Bradley, three apiece from Adams and Funderburk and one from Hoffman.
And they did it without needing Morris or Gómez.
“Our bullpen continues to pitch well,” manager Derek Shelton said. “I think we kind of fortified it at the Deadline, and we’ve seen that. But overall, I think since July 1, our bullpen has been really effective.”
That depth was exactly what Minnesota wanted when it added Hoffman, Minter and Nance.
Before the reinforcements arrived, the Twins had several relievers they trusted in leverage situations, but not necessarily enough of them to avoid repeatedly leaning on the same arms. Now Shelton has considerably more freedom to mix and match depending on who is available.
Ryan Jeffers has noticed the difference.
“The depth that we’ve added at the Deadline gives us the flexibility, too, if a starter does kind of run out of pitches early in the game,” Jeffers said. “It gives us a lot of guys to pitch in high leverage for us.”
Bradley created that situation Saturday.
The right-hander escaped a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam in the first inning allowing only one run, then settled in before Milwaukee scored twice in the fourth to tie the game at 3. His pitch count climbed quickly, and he departed after five innings having allowed three runs while striking out seven.
“He gave us a chance to win the game,” Shelton said.
From there, the bullpen did the same. Minnesota had immediately answered Milwaukee’s first-inning run with three in the second, highlighted by Royce Lewis’ two-out, two-run double. Lewis extended his hitting streak to 13 games and continued a stretch in which Shelton said he has been “a catapult for our offense.”
But once the Brewers pulled even, neither offense found much room.
“You’re looking at 7-8-9 [innings], three of the best leverage relievers in the game,” Shelton said. “The reason the Brewers are good, and the reason the Brewers have been good for a long time, is they really solidified the last three innings of the game.”
Saturday, the Twins nearly matched them.
The loss fell on Hoffman in his latest appearance since joining Minnesota, but neither he nor Shelton viewed the eighth as an indication that much went wrong. Contreras fought off a quality pitch for a hit, and Vaughn followed with a good piece of hitting. For Hoffman, there wasn’t much worth changing.
“Every game means a ton, so obviously it hurts to not come through for the guys,” Hoffman said. “But what’s in the past is in the past. You’ve got to move forward. Next time out, my plan is not going to change a whole lot. I’m going to attack with my best pitches.”
That confidence now stretches well beyond one reliever. The Twins strengthened their bullpen hoping it could become an advantage down the stretch. Even in a one-run loss Saturday, another collection of arms showed why they believe it already has.