CLEVELAND — Griffin Jax and Cole Sands, two of the Twins’ top three bullpen arms, watched from hundreds of feet away in center field as the team tried to piece together the final few innings on Wednesday night.

Both were unavailable because of their recent usage.

It was clear, even before Wednesday’s game started, that if the Twins were going to win, they would need some relievers to come through in different roles than they’re used to handling.

That meant Louie Varland pitching the eighth inning of a tied game. That meant Jhoan Duran coming in for a second straight day. And that meant Ronny Henriquez trying to nail down a save.

Varland and Duran got through their innings. But after Carlos Correa came through with a clutch two-run single in the top of the 10th inning, Henriquez was unable to hold up his end of the bargain and the Guardians came storming back, scoring three runs in the bottom of the 10th for a walk-off 5-4 win over the Twins on Wednesday night at Progressive Field.

It was another crushing defeat for the Twins (80-72) and this one, coupled with a Detroit Tigers win, sliced their lead in the American League wild card race down to just a half game.

“This series, we’ve played three out of four games so far, and we’ve had leads in the eighth inning, ninth inning and now the 10th inning that we expect to have and hold and win the games,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “That’s not a bad formula. The formula is get a lead late and then finish the games. We’ve just been challenged to finish the games and play complete ballgames.”

The Guardians (88-65) began their portion of the 10th with a Kyle Manzardo single to center off Henriquez, bringing home the automatic runner. After a four-pitch walk, a Will Brennan single tied the game up.

“My pitches were not in the locations I wanted,” Henriquez said through an interpreter.

Brayan Rocchio played hero with a chopper off Michael Tonkin to right to walk off the Twins on another disappointing night in Cleveland.

The sting of defeat came just minutes after Correa’s clutch hit. Correa has made a career of stepping up in September and October, when the lights get a little brighter and the pressure is on. After missing months due to plantar fasciitis in his right heel, Correa returned over the weekend, clearly not at 100 percent.

But even when he’s not at his healthiest, the star shortstop has made his impact felt. Correa drove in all four of the Twins’ runs on Wednesday, collecting three hits. Matt Wallner also finished with three hits, and Willi Castro scored a pair of runs.

“I was excited about that at-bat,” Correa said. “It was a good moment, but didn’t get the job done enough.”

Despite the efforts of the top of the Twins’ lineup and a dominant outing from Bailey Ober, the team was unable to scratch out a victory.

With the back of the Twins’ bullpen used heavily recently, the Twins needed Ober to keep Cleveland quiet for as long as he possibly could.

He did just that in a dominant seven-inning effort in which he fed the Guardians a steady dose of changeups and set a new career-high with 12 strikeouts. He made two mistakes to Josh Naylor, who took him deep in both the second and seventh innings, tying the game up twice.

“We’ve just got to put it behind us. I know it’s happened a few times now, but we can’t dwell on what’s going on. We have to move on and get ready and play like tomorrow is our last day,” Ober said. “We know what’s going on and where we’re at and what’s at stake. It’s nothing new. We’ve just got to go out there, and it’s up to us to execute.”

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