With the bases loaded and the game tied in the 10th inning Aaron Ekblad Jersey , Brad Miller plotted his approach as he came to the plate.

”You just look like you’re going to swing and don’t swing,” Miller said.

Miller drew a bases-loaded walk with one out and the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers rallied past the Minnesota Twins, 6-5 on Monday night.

Nate Orf, playing in his first major league game, was hit by a pitch from Zack Littell (0-2) leading off the 10th. Manny Pina followed with a single and Keon Broxton walked.

Pinch-hitter Hernan Perez, hitting against five infielders, hit a grounder to the left side that shortstop Jorge Polanco fielded and fired to the plate to force Orf before Miller got his chance against Littell.

”It’s tough right now,” Littell said, trying to explain his lack of command in the 10th.

Corey Knebel (2-0) pitched a scoreless 10th with a pair of strikeouts for the Brewers, who trailed 5-1 after Robbie Grossman blasted his first career grand slam with two outs in the fifth off Milwaukee starter Brent Suter.

Milwaukee has allowed grand slams in three consecutive games.

Four Brewers relievers combined on five shutout innings.

”Corey had a dynamite inning,” Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said. ”It was an outing for the bullpen. They kept us alive in that game.”

The Brewers rallied against Twins closer Fernando Rodney in the ninth to tie it. After retiring pinch-hitter Eric Sogard, Rodney gave up three consecutive singles to load the bases for Travis Shaw, who tied it with a sacrifice fly. Rodney blew his fifth save opportunity this season.

The Twins tied it at 1 in the third on a one-out RBI groundout by Brian Dozier, one pitch after Dozier appeared to have struck out swinging. Plate umpire Doug Eddings ruled that Dozier had fouled off the pitch, a call argued by Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell.

Suter gave up five runs and nine hits in five innings.

Pina led off the Brewers’ fifth with a homer off Kyle Gibson to cut the Twins’ lead to three. Milwaukee added another run on Miller’s bloop single and pulled to 5-4 when Twins third baseman Willians Astudillo failed to cleanly field Ryan Braun’s grounder near the bag.

Gibson gave up eight hits and three earned runs over five innings.

ORF’S LONG JOURNEY

The undrafted Orf, 28 Youth Jamie McGinn Jersey , started at second base. He has been one of the top-producing players in the Brewers’ farm system for many years and fans have long been clamoring for him to be called up, even launching a (hash)FreeNateOrf campaign on Twitter.

”He is one of the more respected and revered players in our organization because of the way he treats people and because of the way he goes about his business,” Brewers general manager David Stearns said.

Orf, whose parents traveled from St. Louis for the game, narrowly missed hitting a grand slam in the fifth but Max Kepler hauled in the deep drive at the center-field wall.

”After I hit it, I was like this is it. This is the coolest thing I’ve ever done,” Orf said. ”Then he caught it.”

HITTING HURLERS

Gibson, who had singles in his first two at-bats, entered the game with just a pair of career hits in 16 at-bats. His single leading off the third was his first hit since June 2015.

”I’d rather go 0 for 5 and go eight innings,” Gibson said.

Suter singled in his only at-bat and Milwaukee reliever Taylor Williams got his first career hit with a sixth-inning single.

TRAINER’S ROOM:

Twins: Reinstated SS Jorge Polanco following an 80-game suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. To make room for Polanco, OF Ryan LaMarre was designated for release or assignment. … Recalled RHP Zack Littell from Triple-A Rochester and sent LHP Adalberto Mejia to Rochester.

Brewers: OF Christian Yelich sat out for the fourth consecutive time since leaving Thursday’s game with lower back tightness. ..RHP Aaron Wilkerson was optioned to Triple-A Colorado Springs when Orf was recalled. …Transferred INF/OF Nick Franklin, who has been out since May with a quadriceps injury, to the 60-day disabled list.

UP NEXT

Twins: Jake Odorizzi (3-5, 4.62 ERA) allowed one run and five hits with 10 strikeouts in a May 20 start against the Brewers but didn’t factor into the decision.

Brewers: Junior Guerra (4-5, 3.05) surrendered one run and four hits in 4 1/3 innings and received no decision in a 3-1 loss to the Twins in Minneapolis on May 20.

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After winning 14 games, including his first postseason victory with Minnesota and a second NFC North title in four years on the job Jonathan Huberdeau Jersey , Vikings coach Mike Zimmer has a team set up to sustain such success.

The items on his to-do list are major issues, though.

Finding an offensive coordinator has become the top priority, following the departure of Pat Shurmur to become the head coach of the New York Giants. Then there’s the matter of working with general manager Rick Spielman to identify a starting quarterback for 2018, with contracts scheduled to expire for Case Keenum, Sam Bradford and Teddy Bridgewater.

The offensive coordinator will be determined first and likely have some input into the quarterback quandary, too, but sorting out the age, ability, cost, durability and unrealized potential of Keenum, Bradford and Bridgewater will be the more complicated and critical task.

Having been awake with angst until 3 a.m. following Minnesota’s 38-7 loss at Philadelphia in the NFC championship game on Sunday, Zimmer said at his season-ending news conference Tuesday that he hasn’t pointed his mind down that path yet.

”My whole focus was on the now and not so much the future,” Zimmer said. ”Rick and I talked about that earlier. We said, `Let’s just go through the season. Let’s figure it out after the season.’ We’ll go through that process and go from there and see how that goes. We’re just going to work through it.”

Though Zimmer was staying true to the status report, he also didn’t exactly offer a ringing endorsement of Keenum.

”I’m going to work through the process, just like I always do Authentic Nick Bjugstad Jersey ,” Zimmer said, when asked for a specific evaluation of the year Keenum had after going from unheralded backup to season-saver. ”We’re going to evaluate all the players. We’re going to evaluate everybody and go about our business like we always do.”

As for Bradford, whose knee injury yielded the position to Keenum, Zimmer said Bradford told him on Monday that he feels like he is past the trouble that limited him to two starts in 2017.

As for Bridgewater, who took Bradford’s spot on the active roster for the second half of the schedule only to be bumped back to third string and did-not-suit-up status for the playoffs, Zimmer said the Vikings naturally would have preferred to see a fuller picture of on-field action following his recovery from a major knee injury. Keenum’s success made that impossible for Bridgewater, who hasn’t appeared in a high-stakes situation in more than two years.

”For him to even get to that point to where he was and be able to come out and practice and compete, get in a game, was a true credit to him,” Zimmer said, adding: ”He’s at the point where he can play. You just have to figure out where’s he at, because obviously we didn’t get to see him through games.”

Not many teams in NFL history will have such a strong season to come within one win of the Super Bowl, only to have the sport’s most important position in such an uncertain state, but that’s where the Vikings find themselves.

”I guess it’s unique, but it’s part of the process in the NFL,” Zimmer said. ”You work through it http://www.officialavalanche.com/authentic-adidas-j.t.-compher-jersey , and you go about your business.”

As for the offensive coordinator vacancy, Zimmer said he’ll take his time to try to get the right hire. He didn’t rule out internal candidates such as quarterbacks coach Kevin Stefanski, but he also acknowledged the benefit of new ideas from the outside.

The defense could not have been better in the regular season, ranking first in both fewest yards and points allowed, but it faltered over the final five quarters of the playoffs. Nick Foles and the Eagles torched this proud group for 456 total yards.

”I have to do a better job in some areas as far as maybe sticking to some things too much because we’re successful,” Zimmer said.

As for the Super Bowl that will be painfully played on the team’s home turf at U.S. Bank Stadium, Zimmer will not be in attendance, in case there was any question. He’ll be at his vacation ranch in northern Kentucky, inevitably cringing from time to time about coming so close to the franchise’s first championship.

”Our fans were unbelievable the way they helped this football team out. They talked about bringing the whole state together, the state of Minnesota and Vikings fans throughout the world,” Zimmer said. ”That made me feel good, that we were able to bring a bunch of people and try to work for something for a common goal. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to finish it for them, so that is one of the disappointments.”

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