Keaschall tied the game in the 11th inning and moved into rare company in team history.
Luke Keaschall wore two pitches on Wednesday night and singled home the tying run in the 11th inning, and still ended up explaining a loss.
The Minnesota Twins fell 11-6 to the Detroit Tigers in 12 innings after trailing by four runs, tying the game twice, and stranding the winning run in scoring position three different times.
Manager Derek Shelton said the team did a good job battling back but could not capitalize on its opportunities, which is fair.
The Tigers led 5-1 in the sixth before Minnesota began the climb back, as Trevor Larnach doubled home a run and a three-run eighth tied it at 5-5 on a bases-loaded walk from Victor Caratini and a two-run single from Royce Lewis.
Max Clark put Detroit back in front with a double in the 11th, Keaschall answered with a single that scored Kaelen Culpepper, and then the 12th got away from Tommy Nance when Spencer Torkelson hit a two-run homer and Javier Báez followed with a three-run double.
Twins History
Keaschall got hit in each of his first two trips, and the second gave him 19 hit-by-pitches this season, which leads the team and ranks fifth in the majors.
Chuck Knoblauch also took 19 for the 1996 Twins, and per MLB.com only Willi Castro has had more in a single season for the franchise, with 21 in 2024.
The bruises are part of how Keaschall helps, though.
He reaches base at a .369 clip and has stolen 16 bases, but his at-bats keep innings alive, the same quality that ran through Tuesday's 15-2 rout of Detroit.
A club fighting for its season needs hitters who refuse to give away outs, and nobody here does it better.
Focused on Winning
The loss kept Minnesota at 67-73, three and a half games behind Cleveland for the third American League wild card spot, with three other clubs between them and the Guardians, a lot of traffic with 22 games left.
Keaschall said that if the team was going to lose, a night with that much fight was the way to do it, then explained how the clubhouse is handling the final month.
"I know it's September. I know we're getting to the end of the year and you feel like you have to win games, but I keep saying we just have to focus on each day, try to win each game. If we don't, we have to show up to the field the next day with the right attitude to win that day."
One More Shot at Chicago
Minnesota is off Thursday before opening a six-game road trip on Friday against the White Sox at Rate Field, then three more in Detroit.
Chicago leads the American League Central and brought in a veteran outfielder this week, so the Twins walk into a first-place team that just added help, with Byron Buxton still on the injured list with a right hip problem.
It helps that Zebby Matthews handled the White Sox last time out.
Coming back from four down is a nice trait, but coming back and losing anyway is what 67-73 teams do, and Chicago is where Minnesota gets to show it is more than that.
