Buxton and Lewis Stay Hot, But Another Bullpen Implosion Costs Twins

The good news for the Twins is that Byron Buxton keeps launching home runs, Royce Lewis appears to be back, and even Luke Keaschall supplied some rare power on Saturday afternoon. The bad news is that the offense wasn't enough to make up for an awful pitching performance, including a seventh-inning bullpen implosion in a 9-6 loss to the Cardinals at Target Field.

This was a 4-4 game going into the top of the seventh. But after a couple strikeouts, Justin Lawrence gave up back-to-back absolute bombs to Ivan Herrera and Jordan Walker as St. Louis took back the lead. Herrera hit two homers on the day, both of them into the second deck. Walker's 454-foot blast nearly reached the third deck.

Jordan Walker LASER HR, 116.6 MPH

2nd hardest hit homer in MLB this seasonpic.twitter.com/sTqDOtQXfq
— Underdog MLB (@UnderdogMLB) June 13, 2026

Lawrence proceeded to allow two singles before exiting the game. In came Travis Adams, who promptly gave up a three-run bomb to Blaze Jordan — his first in the big leagues — that made it a 9-4 game and gave the Cardinals some breathing room.

The Twins made things a little interesting with a run in the bottom of the eighth before Lewis grounded into a double play to end the threat. They brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth after three straight walks against Cardinals closer Riley O'Brien, but they couldn't find a big hit and managed only one run on a Josh Bell groundout.

Just two innings into this one, St. Louis had built a 4-0 lead. Twins starter Connor Prielipp gave up a two-run homer to Herrera in the first inning and two more runs on three hits in the second. Prielipp did settle in and get through six frames without further damage, but he's now allowed at least four earned runs in four of his last five starts after allowing two or fewer runs in each of his first five. His ERA, which was at 2.88 after his start on May 16, is up to 5.26.

Buxton led off the bottom of the fourth with his 22nd homer of the season, which trails only Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Schwarber (24 each) for the MLB lead. He's hit four homers in the last five games.

Even more encouraging is the run that Lewis has been on since returning from Triple-A St. Paul. He missed a homer by a few feet in the second inning (the ball was just foul) and then doubled. And he followed Buxton with a bomb in the fourth off of a Matthew Liberatore curveball. Lewis has gone 10 for 26 with three home runs in seven games since being called back up. He looks comfortable and confident in his swing again.

Royce Lewis since being recalled (7 games):

.417 BA
3 HRpic.twitter.com/JdmmtNQ6aX
— Underdog MLB (@UnderdogMLB) June 13, 2026

One inning later, Keaschall drove a ball down the left field line for just his second home run of the season — and his first since April 6 — to tie the score at 4-4. But things unraveled in the seventh when Derek Shelton went to his bullpen, which has happened plenty of times in 2026.

The 32-40 Twins will look to win this series on Sunday afternoon behind Taj Bradley, who has struggled in each of his last three outings after an excellent start to his season.

If Buxton and Lewis continue to hit like this and Keaschall can heat up a bit, the Twins' lineup will look pretty solid (especially once Kaelen Culpepper is called up). But if they're going to turn their season around, they need their non-Joe Ryan starting pitchers and their bullpen to pitch a lot better.

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