The Twins came out of the All-Star break with a chance to get back to .500, but instead they walked out of Wrigley Field with a 10-1 loss that got away fast and never really came back.
Zebby Matthews got the ball for Minnesota in the rubber match after the teams split the first two games of the series, and Shota Imanaga started for the Cubs. Imanaga worked a scoreless first, while Matthews looked like he might escape some early trouble after a one-out Seiya Suzuki double. Then he left a breaking ball up to Alex Bregman, and Bregman made him pay with a two-run homer for a 2-0 Cubs lead.
Chicago kept stacking on from there. In the second, Pedro Ramírez doubled and Carson Kelly followed with a one-out single to make it 3-0.
The third inning turned into the real back-breaker, with the Cubs pouring in four more runs. Three of them came on a Nico Hoerner triple that got past Luke Keaschall in center field.
("Triple.") Ramírez added a single later in the inning, and suddenly it was 7-0.
The Cubs weren’t finished. In the fourth, the first four batters reached against Matthews, and Chicago tacked on two more runs before Matthews was pulled without recording an out in the inning. One more run crossed before the frame ended, pushing the lead to 10-0 after four.
Imanaga had all the cushion he needed. He went seven scoreless innings, struck out four, and allowed just seven base runners.
Minnesota finally broke through in the eighth against Phil Maton, when Royce Lewis lifted a sacrifice fly to make it 10-1. That was the only run the Twins could get across, but there was one small bright spot: the bullpen covered five scoreless innings after Matthews was chased early.
Now the Twins head to Cleveland for a four-game series against the Guardians. Monday’s matchup has All-Star Joe Ryan on the mound for Minnesota against Tanner Bibee.
Ryan is coming off his All-Star Game appearance, where he threw one scoreless inning in the American League shutout. Before the break, he had back-to-back strong starts of seven and six innings, allowing two runs over those 13 innings.
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