The Twins had three players in Tuesday night's lineup that were making their Major League debuts. I certainly hope that somebody will let them know that it does, indeed, get better than this.
For the second straight game, the Chicago White Sox completely shut down the Twins' offense, as Jake Peavy hurled 6.1 innings of shutout ball and struck out nine Twins as the White Sox went away with a 3-0 victory at Target Field.
The Twins entered the 2011 season having won 23 of 30 against the White Sox, and won the first six head-to-head match-ups between the two teams this season. Unfortunately, the Twins have dropped nine of the last eleven match-ups against Chicago, and their loss on Tuesday night was their 14th loss in their last 17 games overall.
Australian native Liam Hendriks performed admirably in his major league debut, going seven innings and allowing just four hits, but those four hits resulted in the three White Sox runs. Alejandro de Aza put the first run on the board with an RBI single in the top of the second to give Chicago a 1-0 lead. Alex Rios tagged Hendriks for a solo home run in the top of the fourth to make the score 2-0. In the top of the fifth, outfielder Joe Benson, who was also making his major league debut on Tuesday night, misplayed a fly ball by de Aza to lead off the inning, turning into a triple. de Aza then scored on Brent Morel's single to make the score 3-0 in favor of Chicago.
The Twins got just six hits on the evening, but rookie Chris Parmelee. . .the third Twin to make his big league debut on Tuesday. . .had two of those hits with singles in the second and fourth innings. Only one of Minnesota's six hits went for extra innings, that being a third-inning double by Trevor Plouffe.
The Twins will try to avoid getting swept when the same two teams get together on Wednesday night at Target Field, with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 PM. The pitching match-up will see left-hander John Danks (6-10, 4.01 ERA) go to the mound for Chicago, with the Twins handing the ball to right-hander Carl Pavano (7-11, 4.60 ERA).