Bullpen falters, Twins manage just four hits in 6-2 loss to Chicago Cubs in series opener

Sonny Gray is becoming Target Field's ultimate home-sweet-home pitcher. But he can't do it alone.

Gray struck out seven of the first nine Cubs he faced on Friday, allowed only two hits to leave the infield in 5 ⅓ innings, and departed having given up just one run, the 10th consecutive start he's given up two runs or fewer in his home park.

But Griffin Jax surrendered four consecutive hits in the seventh inning to squander a one-run lead, Jorge Alcala served up a two-run homer to add to the margin, and Chicago handed the Twins a disappointing 6-2 loss in the opener of their three-game series.

Disappointing, but not exactly unique. It marked the fifth time in 10 games in May that the Twins have scored no more than twice.

"Every game's been a dogfight. We're hitting the ball hard but it's just not bouncing our way right now," said Byron Buxton, mired in an 0-for-25 slump over the past week. "[We'll] just keep putting in the work. Things will change."

In fact, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli theorized after his team dropped to 4-6 in May, these tight, tough losses might have a benefit.

"I don't feel like pressure is mounting in any way. We're pitching ourselves into every game, and that's great," Baldelli said. by playing so many close games lately, "you learn how to play, you learn how to find ways to win games. … We need to find ways to create a little bit of separation in these games, and I believe we're going to."

Smyly had little trouble otherwise in his six-inning start, though the Twins did have four hard-hit line drives snagged by Cubs infielders — and one by Smyly himself.

"We had some good swings today. We hit balls on a line," Baldelli said. "I would've expected we would have a little more action and more baserunners based on that. When we did square the ball up, we didn't get much out of it."

And once the lefthander was pulled, the Twins managed not even a hit, eventually provoking a murmur of boos from the announced crowd of 30,037, the largest Target Field crowd since Opening Day.

Jax got in trouble immediately in the seventh, allowing four of the first five batters to collect hits. Matt Mervis hit a ball off the bottom of the center field wall, a double that tied the score, then scored the go-ahead run when Trey Mancini dropped a single into right field.

Any chance for a dramatic ninth-inning rally disappeared when Cubs leadoff hitter Christopher Morel hit a two-run homer off Alcala, the ball landing in the second deck above deep right-center, a blast estimated at 429 feet. Dereck Rodríguez made his 2023 debut after that, and allowed the game's final run.