CHICAGO — Kody Clemens hit two home runs Saturday at Wrigley Field in an otherwise quiet afternoon for the Twins offense, but he should’ve hit in the ninth inning with the bases loaded as the potential tying run.

Instead, an embarrassing baserunning mistake cost the Twins a comeback bid in their 6-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs.

After Josh Bell and Victor Caratini opened the ninth inning with back-to-back singles off Cubs reliever Jacob Webb, Brooks Lee hit a fly ball into the right-center gap. Lee was thinking double. Bell wanted to make sure he tagged at second base as he watched Gold Glove center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong dive for the ball. Caratini was stuck between the other two runners.

The result was disastrous.

Bell was thrown out at third, and Lee was thrown out attempting to retreat to first base in a head-spinning double play. Clemens, now batting with one runner on base and two outs, struck out to end the game.

“We just didn’t run with our head up,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “That’s a ball that Josh can’t initially leave on because PCA dives forward and it hits his glove. We’ve just got to make sure we run with our head up, and we didn’t.”

Crow-Armstrong came about a foot short on his diving attempt, covering a ton of ground in the gap. Initially, Bell and Caratini were separated by about a step next to the second base bag. Bell thought Caratini kept running behind him — Caratini ran several steps behind Bell before stopping between second and third base — so he figured he needed to keep running toward the plate to preserve runners at second and third.

Lee was already standing at second base when Caratini began retreating to the bag. First-base coach Grady Sizemore tried to wave for Lee to run toward first when Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner threw home.

“I saw the ball not get caught, so I assumed a double, and then I saw two runners in front of me and only two bases,” Lee said.

By the time Hoerner’s throw reached the plate, Bell was midway between third and home. Bell tried to sneak back to third base, but he was easily tagged out. Lee, at the same time Bell ran toward third, began running back to first base. Lee was out by a step. Webb, the Cubs pitcher, celebrated with a fist pump and the crowd of 39,508 erupted in cheers.

“If I got back [to first] immediately, I probably would have been back there and we only would have given up one out,” Lee said. “But it happened.”

“A crazy play,” Caratini said.

Bell and Caratini continued to talk about the baserunning blunder in the locker room, chatting about what they could have done differently.

“I didn’t really see Vic go back,” Bell said. “We talked about it, talked with Grady. If I stay at third, then it’s just one out, somebody gets hung up at second base, and then it’s still second and third. Just a little learning experience. In the moment, I was like, OK, you have to score here because you have two people at second, and it’ll be second and third. It was just tough.”

Excluding Clemens’ two home runs, Bell was the only other Twins baserunner to reach third base. Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd allowed three hits and one run over six innings, giving up a solo homer to Clemens in the second inning. It was the first homer Boyd allowed to a lefty batter this season.

Clemens added a solo homer off former Twins reliever Caleb Thielbar in the seventh inning, the third multi-homer game of his career.

If Kyle Hendricks didn’t hit Luke Keaschall with a pitch last April, fracturing Keaschall’s forearm, the Twins may not have acquired Clemens after he was designated for assignment by the Phillies. Hendricks threw the ceremonial first pitch Saturday as the Cubs honored the 10-year anniversary of their 2016 World Series title.

The chaotic baserunning mistake in the ninth inning spoiled a chance for Clemens to put an even bigger imprint on the game, and it ended the Twins’ winning streak at three games.

“That was a wild, wild play there, for sure,” Clemens said. “I don’t know how else we could have done it. The runners have to stay back just in case PCA catches that ball. I don’t know if Brooks knew that they weren’t advancing. But that was a crazy play to watch from on deck.”

Twins starter Taj Bradley yielded five runs in five innings. He gave up seven hits, matching a season high, and three walks.

Michael Busch, an Inver Grove Heights native, drilled a solo homer off Bradley in the first inning when he deposited a 96-mph fastball into the right-field bleachers.

Where the ball landed might be more impressive than the swing. Anthony Rizzo, who carried the 2016 World Series championship trophy onto the field during the pregame festivities, caught the home run ball off a bounce while holding his 1-year-old son.

Bradley surrendered a two-out, two-run double to Miguel Amaya, the No. 9 batter in the Cubs lineup, after he started him with a 0-2 count. Amaya lined an elevated cutter into the left field corner.

The Cubs had two runners on base with two outs in the third inning after Bradley issued a pair of walks. Hoerner hit an RBI single on a first-pitch fastball that was lined about a foot from the right-field line. Pedro Ramírez, the next batter, dropped an RBI ground-rule double that fell about a foot from the left-field line before bouncing out of play.

Bradley, who has a 9-4 record this season, snapped a streak of six straight starts without a loss.

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