The sparse crowd at Target Field on Tuesday night was not shy about making its feelings known. As things went from bad to worse for the hometown team and the Twins continued to fall into a progressively deeper hole against the team with the American League’s worst record, the boobirds came out.
An announced crowd of 11,721 fans — along with more than 300 canine friends — watched the Twins get routed by the Chicago White Sox, falling 12-3 in the second game of the series at Target Field as they gave up 11 unanswered runs.
“I’m going to stay optimistic most of the time, but that wasn’t good,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.
A pair of errors on throws to second base proved costly for the Twins, who gave up two runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth before the White Sox (51-88) broke the game open with four runs in the seventh and then added three more in the eighth.
The Twins (62-76) actually had two separate early leads, striking first after Trevor Larnach knocked in Byron Buxton, who tripled to lead off the bottom of the first. After Simeon Woods Richardson served up a game-tying home run in the top of the second, Mickey Gasper’s stolen base put him in scoring position and Ryan Fitzgerald brought him home.
But things unraveled a few innings later.
With a runner on first in the fifth inning, White Sox right fielder Will Robertson hit a ball back at Woods Richardson, his bat splintering in the process. The barrel flew back at the pitcher, who to ducked and tried to dodge it but his throw to second to get the lead runner sailed over Brooks Lee’s head and into the outfield. The bat did actually nick Woods Richardson during the play, striking him in the neck.
“I was actually trying to focus on both (the bat and the ball) at the same time, but still got to execute a throw,” Woods Richardson said. “I know the internal clock speeds up on anybody and everybody at that point, but you’ve still got to make a better throw.”
Instead of a double play, the error left runners on the corners for Bryan Ramos, the very next batter, who hit a double to bring home both runs and tie the game up at three apiece.
An inning later, after Thomas Hatch issued a leadoff walk, he induced a groundball to third but Austin Martin couldn’t hang onto Fitzgerald’s throw with the ball ticking off his glove, setting the stage for another two-run inning that put the Twins into a deficit from which they would not be able to overcome.
“We make those plays, which are plays that we should make, you never know how the game ends up,” Baldelli said. “We could end up in a really good spot at that point. The fundamentals are going to be the things that we continue to talk about and preach.”
Four more runs scored in the seventh, starting with back-to-back home runs from Kyle Teel and Lenyn Sosa. Four more hits — and two more runs followed — before Hatch got out of the inning and an inning later, Noah Davis served up an Andrew Benintendi three-run home run, eliciting displeasure from the crowd.
“I don’t think anyone felt good leaving the field today, walking off the field,” Baldelli said. “Definitely frustrating, but we have to get over it.”
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