Twins rally for victory vs. Rockies after bullpen blows seven-run lead

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jun 26, 2026

Published in Baseball

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MINNEAPOLIS — The Twins earned their first walk-off win of the season Friday, but they walked off the field feeling more frustrated than the Colorado Rockies.

That’s what happens when a team carries a seven-run lead into the eighth inning, blows it and trails by a run entering the bottom of the ninth before winning in extras.

Royce Lewis delivered the game-winning hit, a single up the middle against Rockies reliever Jimmy Herget to complete a 9-8 victory at Target Field. It was his first career walk-off hit.

The Twins cruised to a 7-0 lead by the fifth inning and starting pitcher Taj Bradley pitched seven strong innings against the Rockies, the team with the worst record in baseball.

Not even that was safe for the Twins bullpen, which entered Friday with the worst bullpen ERA in the majors (5.30).

It was a slow and steady collapse. Bradley left two runners on base in the eighth inning, a broken-bat double and a walk, when he exited to an ovation from the announced crowd of 27,317.

Kody Funderburk surrendered three hits in the eighth inning, allowing both of Bradley’s runners to score and one of his own.

With a four-run lead in the ninth, Eric Orze issued a leadoff walk before former Twins infielder Edouard Julien hit an RBI double that bounced past diving left fielder Austin Martin, who had just entered as a defensive replacement.

Jake McCarthy followed Julien’s hit with a two-run homer.

That brought Anthony Banda to the mound. He gave up a double to Mickey Moniak and a no-doubt homer to Hunter Goodman that electrified the Rockies dugout and drew loud boos from the home crowd.

Eleven months after the Twins traded their five best relievers, including North St. Paul native Louis Varland, who is a lock to make his first All-Star team, the bullpen has sunk into depths unknown.

The Twins tied the game in the bottom of the ninth after Martin hit a one-out single, advanced to second on a single from Ryan Kreidler and then scored when Rockies third baseman Willi Castro misplayed a one-hopper from Byron Buxton.

Rockies starter Tomoyuki Sugano yielded eight hits and seven runs in five innings, matching the most earned runs he’s allowed in his two-year major league career.

Three batters into the bottom of the first inning, the Twins had a 2-0 lead. Kody Clemens smacked his 12th homer of the season on Sugano’s fifth pitch of the evening.

Lewis opened the second inning with a single to left field, and Brooks Lee made it back-to-back innings with a two-run homer when his fly ball to right field landed a few feet from the right field foul pole.

Sugano retired 10 straight batters before the Twins scored three runs with two outs in the fifth inning. Trevor Larnach started the rally with a double to right field and Buxton, who was 1 for 27 when batting with two outs and a runner in scoring position this year, followed with an RBI double to left field.

After Clemens drew a nine-pitch walk, drawing cheers from teammates in the dugout, Josh Bell lined a 94-mph sinker that didn’t sink for a two-run double past diving center fielder Cole Carrigg for a 7-0 lead.

Bradley, who notched his 500th career strikeout, matched his longest start of the season. After giving up a walk and a single in the second inning, he retired 17 of his next 19 batters as he overpowered hitters with a fastball-heavy mix.