MINNEAPOLIS — The morning after the late night, the Twins were groggy.
Seemingly tired from the more than five-hour Monday game that ended past midnight with an extra-innings victory, the Twins seemed largely asleep Tuesday for a noon start — until the eighth inning, when the offense awoke suddenly, with a pep akin to kids on Christmas Day, scoring five runs to tie the game 7-7.
But then Tyler Naquin hit a three-run homer in the top of the ninth to lift Cincinnati to a 10-7 victory over the Twins before 19,187 on Wednesday at Target Field.
Reliever Hansel Robles, pitching for the fourth time in five days, gave up a double to Nick Castellanos and hit Tyler Stephenson with a pitch with one out in the ninth. The lefthanded hitting Naquin, who had four hits in the game, drove a pitch into the left-center field bullpen.
The loss ended a five-game win streak for the Twins.
Cincinnati starter Wade Miley helped lull the Twins into dreamland, as he allowed only two runs and five hits through his seven innings. But as soon as he left the mound, the Twins roughed up three Cincinnati relievers into the eighth inning.
Art Warren walked Jorge Polanco and gave up a two-run homer to Max Kepler. Lucas Sims then came in and Trevor Larnach blasted a 112 mph home run 434 feet to the right field plaza to make the score 7-5. A base hit from Ryan Jeffers and Miguel Sano's double off the left field wall put two Twins in scoring position, and Tejay Antone gave up a two-run double to Alex Kirilloff.
The Twins employed seven pitchers in the 12-inning marathon Monday and fielded six Tuesday. Three of those relievers — Caleb Thielbar, Luke Farrell and Alexander Colome, who gave up three runs in the top of the eighth — pitched in both games.
Rookie starter Bailey Ober coughed up six hits and four runs. The Twins briefly took the lead in the fourth, thanks to Jeffers' two-run homer to left field, but a blowup fifth inning ended that momentum and Ober's day.
Ober allowed the first four batters on base in that inning, including back-to-back singles and a walk that loaded the bases. Jesse Winker then smacked a two-RBI double. Reliever Tyler Duffey would load the bases again with a walk but had only one of the inherited runners score on Eugenio Suarez' RBI single, with Winker thrown out at the plate.
Cincinnati added on to its lead in the eighth inning, profiting off a couple Twins' errors. Miguel Sano, who had already allowed a runner to reach on his error at third base in the second inning, committed another transgression. With runners on first and third, Sano let Kyle Framer's bouncing ball down the left-field foul line pop out of his glove, which helped a run to score.
Then with two runners in scoring position, Tyler Barnhardt sneaked a ground ball through the right side to drive in two.
The Twins are off Wednesday before starting a four-game series with Cleveland on Thursday at Target Field.
•The Twins claimed pitcher Beau Burrows off waivers from Detroit and assigned him to St. Paul.
Burrows, 24, pitched in six games for Detroit this season, and had an 8.64 ERA in 8.1 innings. He was the Tigers' first round pick (22nd overall) in 2015 out of Weatherford (Tex.) High School.
