, and second baseman Luis Urias fielded the ball but couldn't send it home in time to nab Buxton, charging from third after opening the inning as Minnesota's automatic runner at second.Maeda's no-hit bid was ended by Eric Sogard's soft single that soared just over the glove of a leaping Polanco at shortstop. Maeda set a club record with eight consecutive strikeouts and finished the game with 12 punchouts on 115 pitches - the most pitches thrown by a pitcher this season and most in Maeda's five-year major league career since coming over from Japan.The Twins immediately summoned closer Taylor Rogers after Sogard's hit, and the pre-recorded crowd noise was cranked up by the game presentation crew to match the moment. Maeda even tipped his cap to the empty seats, filled behind the plate with oversized-head posters of popular ex-Twins players.Avisail Garcia doubled, Christian Yelich walked, and Keston Hiura singled for the first run. With the bases loaded, Rogers got Gyorko to hit a ground ball for one out as Garcia scored. The relay throw by second baseman Ildemaro Vargas clipped Marwin Gonzalez's glove at first for an error - just the third by the Twins in 24 games this year - and allowed Yelich to score the tying run as the visiting dugout roared in approval.Maeda is in his first season with the Twins, who acquired him this winter from the Los Angeles Dodgers for pitching prospect Brusdar Graterol.Maeda retired 21 straight batters in a stretch from the first to the eighth innings and finished with 12 strikeouts. He walked two. The most recent of five Twins no-hitters was thrown by Francisco Liriano, in Chicago against the White Sox in 2011.Maeda fanned Ben Gamel to finish the fifth for his eighth straight punchout, passing Jim Merritt (1966) and Liriano (2010), who both fanned seven batters in a row for the Twins. The major league record is 10 consecutive strikeouts, set by Tom Seaver for the New York Mets in 1970.Maeda's streak ended when Urias grounded out to start the sixth. The 32-year-old got two more groundouts by the Brewers to cruise through the inning.Twins right fielder Max Kepler made a diving catch in right field on Orlando Arcia's sinking line drive for the second out of the 12th with runners at second and third, and Jorge Alcala (1-0) struck out Urias to end it.Brewers closer Josh Hader struck out two batters in the 10th, including Gonzalez on a pitch he felt was high. Home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak quickly ejected him for arguing.Opponents are 0 for 22 against Hader this season, with four walks and one hit by pitch 12 strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings.Brewers starter Corbin Burnes held the Twins hitless through four innings, until Luis Arraez led off the fifth with a double and scored on a double by Miguel Sano. Burnes struck out American League RBI leader Nelson Cruz with the bases loaded to end that inning.Polanco tacked on a two-out RBI single in the seventh, and Ehire Adrianza added a bunt single that plated in a run in the eighth.TRAINER'S ROOMBrewers: Manager Craig Counsell dismissed a potential connection between Yelich's recovery from a broken kneecap last year and his struggles at the plate this summer. ''You can speculate, I guess, with a million different things on this, but I would say I think he's fine to me,'' Counsell said.Twins: RHP Michael Pineda, who is eligible to rejoin the active roster on Aug. 31 after completion of his suspension for using a banned diuretic, threw 71 pitches in a bullpen session on Monday. ''The stuff is very good. He looks like the Michael Pineda that we all know,'' manager Rocco Baldelli said.UP NEXTBrewers: LHP Brett Anderson (0-2, 4.91 ERA) will make his fourth start of the season on Wednesday night. He allowed five hits, two runs, two walks and one hit batter in 4 1/3 innings with five strikeouts in his last turn, a loss to the Cubs.Twins: RHP Rich Hill (1-0, 0.00 ERA) is on track to return from a shoulder injury that has limited him to one start with his new team. Baldelli was holding off on confirmation until after the game.---More MLB coverage: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/-Sports)
Brewers alter rotation at start of series with TwinsRight-hander Corbin Burnes moves back into the rotation for the Milwaukee Brewers when they open a three-game series with the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night in Minneapolis.Burnes (0-0, 3.38 ERA, one save) is taking the spot that had been held by Eric Lauer, a left-hander. Lauer was optioned to the team's alternate training site following a pair of poor starts, including one against the Twins last Wednesday when he allowed seven runs on nine hits over 3 2/3 innings in a 12-2 loss at Miller Park.Burnes, 8-5 in 66 games and five starts in his career, began the season in the rotation. He allowed a run on two hits with six strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings in an 8-3 victory over the Cubs in Wrigley Field on July 25 before moving to the bullpen, where he formed the second half of a tandem with left-hander Brett Anderson for three straight games."You know, it's going to be just another outing for me," Burnes said. "I've gone multiple innings every outing I've been out there, so the thing for this one is now it's going to be a little more of a set routine, a little more consistency. I was already on the five-day routine. Now I know I'm going in for the first inning." Burnes won his only career appearance against Minnesota with an inning of hitless relief in 2019 at Target Field.Minnesota will counter with right-hander Kenta Maeda (3-0, 2.66), who is 3-2 with a 2.94 ERA in six career starters against the Brewers. He picked up the win in the 12-2 victory at Milwaukee in his last start when he allowed two runs on five hits over 6 2/3 innings.After dropping two of three to the Twins last week in Milwaukee, the Brewers bounced back to win the final three games of their four-game series with the Cubs in Chicago.Minnesota, meanwhile, won three of four over Kansas City at Target Field, including a 4-1 victory on Monday night as Nelson Cruz hit his seventh and eighth home runs of the season.At 40 years, 47 days, Cruz became the oldest player with a multi-home run game since Boston's David Ortiz did it against the New York Yankees in a May 2016 contest at the age of 40 years and 172 days.Cruz has now hit 409 home runs in his career, moving him into a tie for 55th place on the all-time list with former Texas teammate Mark Teixeira."Nelson is getting to a lot of different pitches in the zone and finding the barrel," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "When you're watching at ground level and you're getting to see the actual adjustments he's making during the at-bats -- he's not just up there swinging, he's not a power hitter who goes up there looking to hit home runs. He puts good, under-control swings on the ball, and he knows what he's up there looking for. He knows who he's facing." Baldelli added, "It's not happening by accident. The guy is very talented, but he also makes fantastic adjustments." --Field Level Media
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