MINNEAPOLIS _ First, Kenta Maeda lost his no-hit bid.
Then the Minnesota Twins bullpen lost the lead.
But they didn't lose the game.
It took a while, but the Twins eventually shook off blowing a 3-0 lead to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in 12 innings when Byron Buxton raced home from third to score on Jorge Polanco's soft grounder to second.
Buxton started the inning at second, as per the new extra inning rules. Alex Avila grounded out to first, allowing Buxton to move to third. Max Kepler, facing a five-man infield that included Ryan Braun back at third base, was hit with a 3-2 pitch. And Polanco's bleeder was fielded by Luis Urias at second, but his throw home was late.
Maeda took the mound in the ninth inning looking to make history as just the third Japanese pitcher to throw a no-hitter in Major League Baseball.
But his brilliance had expired the inning before, as he hurled 21 pitches at Brewers hitters to get through the eighth and dare manager Rocco Baldelli to replace the guy pitching the game of his life.
Maeda earned the opportunity, Baldelli decided, and went to the mound despite throwing a career-high 113 pitches.
"Rocco and Wes didn't talk to me between (eighth and ninth) innings so I knew I was coming out again," Maeda said.
But infielder Eric Sogard lifted a 0-1 changeup just out of the reach of shortstop Polanco and into center field for the Brewers' first hit of the game.
"It was a weak contact hit. I executed the pitch. There wasn't much I could do about it," Maeda said.
Instead of tossing the sixth no-hitter in Twins history, Maeda became the sixth Twins pitcher to lose a no-hit bid in the ninth inning, the first since Kansas City's Mike Sweeney singled off Scott Baker on Aug. 31, 2007.
It would get worse, as the Twins proceeded to let their 3-0 lead in the ninth slip through their fingers with closer Taylor Rogers on the mound in relief of Maeda.
Avisail Garcia followed with a double, Rogers walked Cristian Yelich and Keston Hiura singled to center to drive in a run. Jedd Gyorko, who homered off Rogers last week, pinch hit and grounded into what should have been a double play, but newest Twin Ildemaro Vargas' throw to first was off the mark for an error, and two runs scored to tie the score.
That led to the Twins' playing extra innings in the new format _ the player who made the last out of the previous inning starts the 10th at second base _ for the first time. Caleb Thielbar got through the top of the inning. Jake Cave pinch ran for Nelson Cruz to start the bottom of the inning, but Josh Hader struck out two to push the game to the 11th.
Jorge Alcala walked Yelich with one out in the 11th _ Eric Sogard started the inning at second _ but Alcala got the final two outs to keep the score at 3-3 heading into the bottom of the 11th. Ildemaro Vargas started at second but was nailed trying to advance to third on a grounder to Jedd Gyorko at first base.
Buxton bounced into a double play _ his second of the night _ and it was on to the 12th.
Alcala, with Gyorko on second, gave up a leadoff single to Braun but escaped from the jam, getting a pop out, lineout and strikeout. That set Alcala up to win his first career MLB game.
Maeda was effective early, including a midgame stretch in which he set a Twins record for most consecutive strikeouts.
The eight consecutive strikeouts broke the Twins record that was shared by Francisco Liriano in 2010 and Jim Merritt in 1966.
