Zebby Matthews turned in the best start of his young career, Cole Sands allowed just one hit in his two innings on the mound and Griffin Jax made quick work of the Cardinals in the eighth inning on Sunday. The Twins appeared well on their way to a series-ending victory after Royce Lewis delivered a pinch-hit double in the bottom of the eighth inning to give them the lead back.

And then, things started to unravel.

With one out in the ninth, Edouard Julien slid and knocked down a ground ball, but it went off his glove and into the outfield. The very next batter, Brendan Donovan, hit a grounder to Julien, whose throw to second instead sailed into the left field, putting runners on second and third. The Cardinals then made the Twins pay with Lars Nootbaar’s two-run single leading St. Louis to a 3-2 win in the series finale at Target Field.

“First time that I’ve ever (missed) on a double-play throw arm side,” Julien said. “I don’t know what happened. Maybe my feet weren’t turned enough, but I usually do that. I don’t know. It just happened in a bad moment, I guess.”

After the error, Jhoan Duran struck out Cardinals (65-65) left fielder Tommy Pham, putting the Twins within an out of sealing the victory. That was the closest they got.

Nootbar swung at the first pitch of his at-bat and sent a single to left to put the Twins (72-58) down for the first time all day.

“We gave it to Duran. He gets a bunch of ground balls. He really didn’t do anything to hurt his cause, but sometimes you get a bunch of ground balls and you can lose the game,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It’s a play that Eddy’s going to make almost every time.”

Duran (6-7) surrendered three hits and two runs, both were unearned.

An inning earlier, it looked as if Lewis was going to play hero, hammering a JoJo Romero changeup to the warning track in left-center field to bring in Willi Castro and give the Twins the lead back.

The game had been tied since the fifth inning when Matthews, in the best start of his young career, allowed a home run to Victor Scott II with two outs in the inning. Matthews was sharp in his outing, striking out seven batters, including two in each of his first three innings of work in his outing.

“I definitely was happy with the performance out there,” he said. “I left a slider up in the fifth inning that Scott was able to put a barrel on, but for the most part, I executed the pitchers I wanted to.”

He nearly matched Cardinals starter Erick Fedde, who quieted the Twins for the third time this season. Fedde allowed just a home run to Castro, the first batter he faced in the first inning, before settling in and not giving another run in his six innings of work.

“He’s a difficult task,” Baldelli said. “He’s proven that.”

But while the Twins weren’t really able to solve Fedde, they did have themselves in position late to win a game and, for the third time in a week, saw a potential victory turn into a tough loss.

“We probably could have found ways to score some runs today and separate a little bit and give ourselves a little bit a cushion,” Baldelli said. “When you’re trying to hold it together and keep them from scoring for many innings, sometimes just putting balls in play will lead to wins.”

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