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Jul 23, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman (5, left) celebrates with Enrique Hernandez (8) after hitting a game winning RBI single in the ninth inning against the Minnesota Twins at Dodger Stadium. Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

The 5 most painful Minnesota Twins losses of the 2025 season (so far)

Originally posted on Minnesota Twins on SI
By Will Ragatz | Last updated Jul 24, 2025 7:53 PM ET

The Twins' gut-wrenching loss to the Dodgers on Wednesday was far from their only brutally painful defeat of the season. They've had some tough ones to swallow over the first 102 games of the 2025 campaign. Minnesota's 11-17 record in one-run games tells part of the story of their 49-53 overall record, which has their playoff hopes in a rough place (though certainly not dead) as July winds down.

Here's a look back at the five worst losses of the season for the Twins (so far). Just to be clear, there have been enough of these this year that a bunch of rough ones won't even make the list.

5. Mariners 6, Twins 5 (June 24)

This one hurt more because of the context of the games that had come before. The Twins were mired in their worst stretch of the season, having lost 14 of 17 games entering this one at Target Field (including several ugly blowouts). They went down 5-0 early on this day and appeared to be headed to another lopsided loss. Instead, they quickly rallied to tie it at 5-5, although they left meat on the bone in a four-run fourth inning when Ty France grounded into a double play with the bases loaded and no outs, followed by Byron Buxton striking out with one down and runners on the corners.

It went to the ninth inning still tied at 5. And that's when Jhoan Duran, who has been so good this season, gave up a single to rookie Cole Young in between hitting two Mariners with pitches, setting up a go-ahead sacrifice fly from Julio Rodriguez. Seattle won 6-5 to extend the Twins' misery.

4. Astros 9, Twins 7 (April 6)

Remember this one? It sure feels like a long time ago. With a chance to win their first home series of the season, the Twins led the Astros 7-1 after four innings in Minneapolis. But Chris Paddack (and a Willi Castro error) coughed half of that lead up immediately in the top of the fifth. The Twins led 7-5 in the bottom of the eighth and got the first two runners on, but the heart of their order couldn't deliver an insurance run.

Then, in the top of the ninth, Yordan Alvarez launched a two-run bomb off of Griffin Jax to tie the game. The Astros went on to score a pair in the top of the tenth and complete the comeback, dropping the Twins to 3-6.

3. Braves 6, Twins 4 (April 18)

It's been a weird year for Jax. He has 68 strikeouts to just 12 walks in 44 innings, putting his FIP pretty close to where it was during his elite 2024 season. He also has imploded a bunch of times in Twins losses, getting charged with five of those losses himself.

This was Griffin Jax's seventh game in which he lowered the #MNTwins win probability by at least 25%, the most by any AL reliever.
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) July 23, 2025

April 18 in Atlanta was one of those implosions. The Twins led 4-0 after four innings and 4-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth, and then Jax just fell apart. With one out, the Braves got a walk, a single, an infield single, and another walk to make it a 4-2 game with the bases loaded. Jax was lifted for Cole Sands, who gave up back-to-back two-run singles to make it a five-run inning and a 6-4 Atlanta lead. Sands failed to put the fire out, but it was Jax who set up the mess. That loss kicked off a three-game sweep by the Braves that dropped the Twins to 7-15.

2. Guardians 4, Twins 3 (May 1)

This was quite the gut punch, in part due to what had happened earlier in the series. After the Twins won the opener of a four-game set in Cleveland in blowout fashion, they lost 2-1 on a walkoff Kyle Manzardo homer in the second game. They gave up four runs in the seventh to break a scoreless tie the next day. And in the finale, a familar scene played out. The Twins tied this one at 2-2 with a couple clutch hits in the seventh inning, but they couldn't add on with runners on the corners and one out. They stranded the bases loaded in both the seventh and eighth innings.

The Twins took the lead in the top of the tenth, but Justin Topa couldn't close out a win in the bottom half. Jose Ramirez singled in the game-tying run, stole second, and then scored on a walkoff single by Angel Martinez. At the time, it was their fifth walkoff loss in Cleveland over the previous calendar year and their 12th consecutive loss in one-run games at Progressive Field. Cory Provus could hardly believe it.

1. Dodgers 4, Twins 3 (July 23)

The most recent one tops the list. The Twins had a chance to complete their first-ever series win at Dodger Stadium and salvage a road trip that began in brutal fashion with a pair of losses to the lowly Rockies. They took a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning, which had a chance to be more if Willi Castro hadn't grounded into a double play with the bases loaded and no outs. And in the bottom of the ninth, they should've been given the win when Mookie Betts clearly went around on an attempted checked swing with two outs and two strikes.

Instead, Betts was given another chance against Jax. An infield single by Betts, an intentional walk to Shohei Ohtani, and an unintentional (and inexcusable) walk of Esteury Ruiz set up Freddie Freeman's walk-off two-run single, which hit off of a diving Harrison Bader's glove.

That's about as painful as it gets.