MINNEAPOLIS — The Twins came armed with their two best starting pitchers, the return of a former MVP, and the conviction that each of their three straight losses could be yeah-but explained away as mere bad breaks.
They walked away Wednesday with two more humbling defeats, a 5-7 record and five-game losing streak, and probably a nagging suspicion that something more troubling than tough luck is to blame.
Boston, winners of nine in a row, swept a pair of seven-inning games at Target Field, 3-2 and 7-1, and in each case the Red Sox mounted a substantial rally in one inning that the Twins couldn't overcome in seven. Kenta Maeda's throwing error triggered a three-run frame in Game 1, and a sudden loss of command by Jose Berrios and Tyler Duffey turned into a six-run Boston outburst in Game 2.
The latter meltdown was particularly disheartening for the Twins, since Berrios had been dominating through the first four innings, racing only one more than the minimum and turning a liner back to the mound into an impressive double play.
But in the fifth inning, nursing a 1-0 lead, Berrios suddenly came undone. Rafael Devers led off with a double, and Christian Vazquez took a 3-2 changeup to draw a walk. After Marwin Gonzalez struck out looking, Bobby Dalbec loaded the bases with perfectly placed infield hit to second base. Berrios responded by walking in a run for the first time in two years, missing high with four consecutive fastballs, none of them close.
Tyler Duffey relieved Berrios and after striking out Enrique Hernandez, allowed a two-run single to Alex Verdugo, and threw a wild pitch to score another run. He loaded the bases with two more walks, and Caleb Thielbar surrendered a two-run single to Devers to make it a six-run inning, the biggest inning allowed by the Twins so far this year.
Maeda's fate was similar in Game 1 — he pitched into the fifth inning, and mostly pitched well. Except for one inning that doomed him.
Maeda fielded a third-inning sacrifice bunt by Red Sox catcher Kevin Plawecki, whirled and fired the ball over Luis Arraez's head and down the left-field line, the trigger that turned a mild jam into a three-run inning.
The common thread between the two games: The lack of timely hitting by the home team. Minnesota went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position in the first game, 0-for-6 in the second, and if not for Jorge Polanco's two-run single in Game 1, would have had zero RBI hits in a chilly 14-inning day.
Even the return of Josh Donaldson for the second game, after being idled nearly two weeks by a strained right hamstring, didn't help. Donaldson singled off Red Sox lefthander Eduardo Rodriguez and scored the Twins' only run in the first inning, but otherwise went hitless as the Twins, who managed only five hits in each game, were outhit by the Red Sox, 19-10.
