CLEVELAND — Ronny Henriquez has never saved a major league game in his 18-game major league career, had never even been given an opportunity before Wednesday night.

It showed.

The rookie right-hander, forced into his first-ever extra-inning action because the Twins’ bullpen has been so overworked lately, faced four batters and allowed two hits and a walk, eventually turning an against-the-odds Twins victory into a devastating 5-4 loss to the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field.

Henriquez took over for Twins closer Jhoan Duran, who retired the Guardians in order in the ninth, in the 10th, with the assignment of protecting the Twins’ 4-2 lead built on Carlos Correa’s three clutch hits. But with courtesy runner Josh Naylor standing on second base, Henriquez gave up an RBI single to Kyle Manzardo, then walked Andrés Giménez.

Pinch-hitter Will Brennan then singled home pinch-runner Myles Straw to tie the score.

The rookie did strike out Bo Naylor but was relieved by Michael Tonkin. Light-hitting shortstop Brayan Rocchio lofted Tonkin’s second pitch into right field, scoring Giménez with the winning run.

The Guardians’ late rally leaves the Twins vulnerable to a tightening of the wild-card race from behind, with Detroit starting the day 1 1/2 games behind the Twins, and costs them another chance to close in on the Kansas City Royals, 1 1/2 games ahead of them to start the day. It also means the Guardians can eliminate the Twins from the race for the AL Central title with a victory in the series finale Thursday afternoon.

Until the ugly 10th inning, the game appeared to be a triumph for Correa, who drove in all four Twins runs.

Correa hit a high bouncer to short in the first inning, and an awkward, accidental looper to second in the fifth, and both somehow drove in runs that offset Josh Naylor’s pair of long and loud solo home runs.

And in the 10th, Correa stroked a bases-loaded line drive into center field, driving in the final two runs for the Twins to put them ahead 4-2.

Bailey Ober was a complete mystery to eight of the nine Guardians in the lineup. But Naylor, among the top 10 home run hitters in the American League this year? He had a solution.

Naylor clobbered the first pitch he saw from Ober, a middle-of-the-plate fastball, 445 feet into the stands in right-center in the second inning, the longest home run Ober has ever allowed at sea level.

In the seventh, he watched two change-ups go by, fouled off two more change-ups, then barreled up the fifth one he saw. This one traveled a mere 391 feet, but the effect was the same: A souvenir for one of the 19,391 fans in attendance.

Ober, Louie Varland and Duran didn’t allow the Guardians to score again, forcing extra innings, where it all came apart.

Naylor’s bombardment aside, Ober was the big-game pitcher the Twins were hoping for all night. He allowed only four hits, never more than one in an inning, and struck out a career-high 12 Guardians, always at least one per inning.

When the Twins staked him to a 2-1 lead in the fifth, Ober surrendered a leadoff hit to Cleveland second baseman Andrés Giménez, who quickly stole second base. Visibly challenged by the sudden scoring possibility, the tall right-hander mowed down the next three hitters, striking out the side on a dozen pitches to strand Giménez on second.

But the Twins’ offense, strangled by Cleveland pitching in every meeting — the Twins have scored 34 runs in 12 games, more than four runs only once — was all but silent once again. They even went through a stretch of 12 batters in the middle innings who managed to hit the ball out of the infield only once.

And that constituted one of their “rallies.” With two outs in the fifth, Willi Castro was hit in the foot by a Tanner Bibee slider, breaking Chuck Knoblauch’s team record and making Castro the first Minnesota Twin ever to be hit by 20 pitches in one season.

Matt Wallner followed with a line drive to right field, moving Castro to third base. Up came Correa, who awkwardly smacked a high pitch off the handle of his bat, just above the hands. It produced a looper to second base that fell in front of Giménez, who couldn’t recover in time to throw him out. Castro scored, and the Twins owned a lead that lasted until Naylor’s next at-bat.

It was a decent match, in its innocuousness, for the Twins’ first-inning run against Bibee. Castro hit the first pitch of the game to the warning track in left-center, a leadoff double. He moved to third on an infield hit by Wallner. And Correa drove him home by chopping a pitch toward rookie shortstop Rocchio, who couldn’t handle the short-hop. He was charged with an error, and Correa was credited with his first RBI since July 10.

The Twins had a couple other scoring opportunities, but didn’t have another fortunate ground ball in them, going 2 for 10 on the night with runners in scoring position. Three of those outs came in the eighth inning, when Wallner provided a leadoff double to the wall in right field, his third hit of the night. But Correa lined out, Carlos Santana popped up and Trevor Larnach struck out, scotching that rally.

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