After a pre-All Star Break push and a nice victory over the Chicago Cubs on Friday night, the Minnesota Twins looked to take the series and continue their upward trajectory. Alas, that ascent was abandoned with a tough defeat on Saturday followed by this laugher loss today.
The small Ursidaes made noise right away in B1, ambushing Twins SP Zebby Matthews with a Seiya Suzuki double and an Alex Bregman blast over the LCF bricks. 2-0 CHI.
Right back on the attack in B2, a Pedro Ramirez bloop ground-rule double in the LF corner immediately came around to score on a bleeder single up the middle for Carson Kelly. 3-0 CHI.
If you are starting to sense a pattern here, it continued in B3. After the Cubs loaded the bases with one out, Luke Keaschall tried to corral a Nico Hoerner single—and instead missed the sphere entirely and let it roll to the ivy while the three CHI baserunners made a lot of left turns. Ramirez also singled to bring home Hoerner. 7-0 CHI.
Three more runs for the Cubbies in B4 as Matthews was now firmly in “save the bullpen for the upcoming Guardians series” mop-up mode. 10-0 CHI.
With Twins’ bats utterly silent off Chicago starter Shota Imanaga, the only drama in Wrigleyville was whether a position player would be put to use on the pitcher’s mound.
The Twins would find the scoreboard in T8 when an Austin Martin single came around to score on a Royce Lewis sacrifice fly. 10-1 CHI.
Ultimately no position players would paw the rubber for MN, with Travis Adams, Kody Funderburk, & Woo-Suk Go pushing the mop and bucket to the finish line.
Your Final: Chicago Cubs 10, Minnesota Twins 1.
Quite literally one step forward and two steps back on the South Side this weekend.