CHICAGO _ What the Twins endured on Saturday was heat torture. From the Cubs' bats and definitely from that ball of fire in the sky.
Three Twins players had to leave the game because of heat sickness during a steamy afternoon at Wrigley Field. Cubs hitters thrived from hot hitting up and down their lineup. The Twins fought as long as they could before withering to a 14-9 defeat and now have dropped the first two games of this three game series to a Cubs team that has scored at least 10 runs in three consecutive games for the first time since 2003.
Ice baths, anyone?
In the midst of the steamy conditions was a topsy-turvy game in which the Twins grabbed an early 3-0 lead, fell behind 4-3, rallied to take a 7-4 lead, fell behind 9-7 and came back to tie at 9-9 before the Cubs blistered the Twins for five runs in the seventh inning.
The big inning came at the hands of reliever Trevor Hildenberger, who lasted one-third of an inning. Jayson Heyward hit a RBI single, Javy Baez hit a two-run single, Wilson Contreras added a sacrifice fly and Addison Russell sent Hildenberger to the showers with an RBI single.
Hildenberger began the day with a 2.08 ERA but saw it rise to 3.18.
It was torturous in every sense. The Cubs didn't pepper Sheffield and Waveland Avenues with home runs. Of their 20 hits, 18 were singles and two were doubles, a concert of solid contact.
During the Cubs' five-run fifth inning, a runner advanced from first to third on a single five times. A procession that can demoralize an opponent.
And the conditions made for an all-around miserable day for the Twins.
Uniforms were soaked from sweat in the first inning. Twins infielders rushed into the dugout for a water break during a pitching change.
But the full impact of the conditions on the field weren't felt by the Twins until the fifth inning, when Eddie Rosario _ moments after hitting a two-run homer that gave them a 5-4 lead _ had to leave the game because of heat illness. One inning later, Bobby Wilson drew a walk and looked ill as he arrived at first. He eventually was removed for the same reason.
Max Kepler left the game before the eighth inning for the same reason. Logan Morrison, the last position player left on the bench, had to come in and play left field while Willians Astudillo, who made his major-league debut by replacing Rosario in left, finished the game in center.
The game time temperature was 91 degrees. But a check when Rosario left the game revealed that it had climbed to 96 degrees, with a heat index of 106.
The heat, and the Cubs, were too hot to handle for the Twins.
