Elly De La Cruz stood in the batter's box and held the finish from his swing as Twins reliever Jorge Alcala watched his 89-mph slider sail into the right-field seats.

De La Cruz celebrated his first career grand slam. Alcala and the Twins saw the playoff race for the American League's last wild-card spot tighten after an 8-4 loss in Friday's series opener at Target Field. The Twins have lost five of their past seven games and 13 of their past 20.

The Twins hold a 2½-game lead over Detroit for the third wild card with 15 games remaining in the regular season. In the American League Central, the Twins sit 5½ games behind Cleveland and 2½ back from Kansas City.

"It's now or never, really," said Twins righthander Bailey Ober, who was charged with five runs in 6â…” innings. "We've got to go out there, play hard and win games. The only way we're getting into the playoffs is if we go out there and handle our business the way we should."

Alcala, who inherited two runners on base with two outs in the seventh inning, hasn't been dependable for the past three weeks. He issued a five-pitch walk to Jonathan India before serving up his grand slam to De La Cruz.

In Alcala's past eight outings, he has surrendered 13 hits, 10 runs and five homers. When including inherited runners, he has recorded only two clean outings since Aug. 18, his ERA rising from 2.15 to 3.59.

"We need Alcala to go into that game, pitch well and keep us in the game," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "Today, we didn't get that, but that's what we need from guys. Once you lose the lead, you're not out of the game. We showed that. We came back, scored some runs, got some baserunners and made some things happen. We were just too far out of the game."

The seventh inning spiraled on Ober after he gave up a leadoff triple off the right-field wall to Spencer Steer, the former Twins prospect dealt to Cincinnati in the Tyler Mahle trade in 2022. On the next pitch, in a tie game, TJ Friedl dropped a picture-perfect squeeze bunt down the first-base line. Ober attempted to flip the ball with his glove to the plate, but there was no realistic play as Steer easily scored the go-ahead run without a slide.

"I felt like the only play I really had was to try to flip the ball to [catcher Ryan Jeffers]," Ober said. "I mean, I'm full speed running at that ball. If I try to grab it, I'm going to have to make a crazy throw to get him out at first."

After a mound visit, Ty France drove a first-pitch cutter into the left-center gap for an RBI double. Ober slapped at his glove from behind the plate in frustration when Friedl crossed the plate.

Ober walked Santiago Espinal on five pitches — the plate appearance that frustrated Ober the most — before he struck out the next two batters. Alcala entered to face India, who had two hits against Ober, and the Twins' two-run deficit swelled to six.

"He keeps you in every game," Baldelli said of Ober. "He gave us another one of those starts today."

BOXSCORE: Cincinnati 8, Twins 4

The Twins totaled only two hits in their first six innings against righthander Julian Aguiar, and one was an infield single. Byron Buxton, playing in his first game since he was activated from the injured list, delivered the second hit when he connected with an inside changeup and bashed it over the left-field fence for a solo homer in the fifth inning.

Buxton, thrilled to return after a monthlong absence, ran quickly around the base paths, clapped twice after touching home plate and pointed to someone in the crowd. Royce Lewis jumped out of the dugout to celebrate with a special handshake. Buxton had a smile whipped across his face as he went through a line of high-fives in the dugout, repeating, "Let's go!" as he passed teammates.

It wasn't enough to spark the Twins. They scored three runs in the seventh inning, which included a two-out, two-run single from Brooks Lee, but they didn't have another baserunner in the final two innings.


bobby.nightengale@startribune.com