The Minnesota Twins' offense picked up right where they left off in the second game of Monday's doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox. . .which means we're not even sure if they bothered to show up at all.
White Sox starter Zach Stewart took a perfect game into the eighth inning on Monday night at Target Field, and the Twins wound up with just one hit on the evening in a 4-0 loss to Chicago.
Minnesota's lone hit came in the bottom of the eighth inning, when Danny Valencia doubled off of Stewart to break up the perfect game. Chicago did their damage thanks to a Juan Pierre RBI single in the top of the second off of Twins' starter Scott Diamond to make the score 1-0, and followed that up with an Alexei Ramirez RBI single in the top of the fifth to increase that lead to 2-0. Brent Morel singled with the bases loaded and two out in the top of the seventh to bring home two more Chicago runs, increasing the White Sox lead to 4-0 and providing the final margin of victory.
The loss for the Twins, coupled with Kansas City's victory over Oakland, moves the Twins back into last place in the American League Central division, half a game behind the Royals and 21 games out of first place in the American League Central division. One more loss by the Twins or one more victory by the Detroit Tigers will mathematically eliminate the Twins from the post-season hunt, even though they were realistically eliminated a long, long time ago.
The series will continue on Tuesday night from Target Field, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:10 PM Central time. Right-hander Jake Peavy will take the hill for Chicago, and Twins fans will get to witness the debut of Australian right-hander Liam Hendriks, who was called up from Rochester to make the start for Minnesota.