Every day is a new adventure with the Twins’ bullpen. This, of course, is not entirely unexpected after a trade deadline in which the Twins depleted their bullpen by trading their top five arms to contending teams.
On Tuesday, the Twins’ bullpen gave up nine runs, sending them to an ugly blowout loss. Wednesday, it was a ninth-inning lead that the bullpen gave away, spoiling a great start from Zebby Matthews. Down to their last out, former Twin Michael A.Taylor sent a two-out, two-run double to left field that hit the foul line and helped lift the Chicago White Sox to a 4-3 win in front of an announced crowd of 11,904 at Target Field.
“Game of inches. I thought it was as close as it could get,” third baseman Royce Lewis said. “It could have been two inches foul and I would have loved that.”
A fan sits in the outfield stands prior to the start of the game between the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins at Target Field on September 03, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)
Chicago’s three-run inning started when lefty Kody Funderburk allowed a one-out single and walk, leading to his departure. His replacement, Justin Topa, allowed a run-scoring single just over the head of second baseman Luke Keaschall that cut the Twins’ lead to 3-2.
Topa then got one out before Taylor’s big swing.
“That’s not the way we anticipated the game going at the end of the game,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We pitched really well all the way up until the very end.”
While the Twins (52-88) had an opportunity to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth with Byron Buxton leading off the frame with a double and Trevor Larnach walking right after him, they couldn’t advance either runner and lost their fifth straight game to the team with the American League’s worst record.
That was one of a few missed opportunities for the Twins, who did not plate Buxton innings earlier when he led off the fifth with a triple and came up empty handed after loading the bases in the fourth inning.
Despite all of that, the Twins had held a lead for most of the game, striking first for a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. One scored on a Keaschall double, and Keaschall came around to score after Matt Wallner singled and right fielder Brooks Baldwin could not handle the ball.
They scored again in the sixth inning on a Lewis RBI single, his third hit of the game. The third baseman also swiped two bags in the loss, bringing his total on the season from three to five.
And those three runs, for much of the night, seemed as if they could be enough in support of Matthews, who turned in one of his better starts of the season.
Royce Lewis #23 of the Minnesota Twins steals second base against Chase Meidroth #10 of the Chicago White Sox in the second inning at Target Field on September 03, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)
After limiting a very good San Diego Padres team to three runs (two earned) over six innings in his last start, Matthews held the White Sox (62-77) to one run — an Edgar Quero home run to left field in the second inning — again in six innings pitched. Matthews gave up just three hits in his outing, but just one in his final four innings of work as he retired 12 of the last 13 batters he faced.
“It feels good keeping the team in the game, being able to go out there and get six,” Matthews said. “That’s a quality start. As a starter that’s kind of what your goal should be, so being able to do that back to back starts is big.”
Cole Sands followed him into the game and turned in a pair of perfect innings, striking out four of the six batters he faced to protect the lead at the time. But after that, the Twins just couldn’t finish it off.
“We’ve just got to go out there and make the pitches,” Baldelli said. “Whether it’s the last inning of the game or not, obviously limit free passes, things like that. But we will have better days out there.”
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