Twins have hard time against soft-throwing Kyle Hendricks in 12-2 loss to Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. — In this era of high velocity and low margins of error, Kyle Hendricks endures.

And on nights like Tuesday, he thrives.

Throwing no pitch faster than 87.4 mph, the former longtime Chicago Cubs righthander, now with the Los Angeles Angels, dominated a Twins lineup that had scored a dozen runs one night earlier.

Using his old-school mix of changeups, sliders and sinkers, Hendricks pitched seven super-efficient scoreless innings and ended the Angels’ six-game losing streak to the Twins, 12-2 at Angel Stadium.

For the Twins, who hadn’t lost at Angel Stadium since May 2023, it was the fourth time this month that they have allowed at least 11 runs. It was also their 81st loss on the season, meaning, for the third time in five years, they will not have a winning record.

BOXSCORE: Angels 12, Twins 2

MLB standings

The 35-year-old Hendricks, memorably the Cubs’ starter on the night they ended their 108-year world championship drought in 2016, surrendered only four hits to the Twins, all of them singles. With a single, a steal and a sacrifice bunt, Byron Buxton reached third base in the first inning — but no other Twin ever did against Hendricks.

“He’s been in the league a long time for a reason,” said Royce Lewis, who followed up his two-homer night Monday with an 0-for-4. “That was the main thing today. He located at the bottom of the zone, moved in and out very well. Tough to hit.”

That was a stark contrast to the Angels, who spent the evening circling the bases in bunches. Most painfully for the Twins, all 12 of the Angels’ runs came with two outs.

Zebby Matthews, who had allowed only three earned runs over 12 innings in his previous two starts, also didn’t allow an extra-base hit among the seven hits he was charged with. But since three of them came in the first inning and two more in the fifth, each rally aided by a walk and a defensive lapse, he allowed five runs in his 4⅔ innings.

“It makes it tough, stringing together hits like that, and with two outs, just not quite finishing innings,” Matthews said. “But I feel like I made some decent pitches. Things just didn’t go my way there with the singles.”

Matthews left the game in the fifth, having given up Chris Taylor’s two-out RBI single. Rengifo then greeted reliever Pierson Ohl with a run-scoring single of his own. It was only the start of trouble for the Twins’ thin bullpen, though.

Ohl allowed four runs of his own in the sixth, an inning capped by Taylor’s three-run homer to straightaway center field. Thomas Hatch gave up three more in the seventh, Yoán Moncada providing the three-run homer this time, down the right-field line.

And Twins position player Ryan Fitzgerald, throwing pitches timed in the high 30s and low 40s, gave up … well, zero runs. There were a couple of singles but enough balls hit at fielders to keep the Angels from adding to their total.

In the ninth inning, Fitzgerald made a little history, too, connecting off Angels lefthander Brock Burke for his second career home run, which scored the Twins’ only two runs and made him the fourth Twin in the past decade to hit a home run in a game in which he also pitched. Willi Castro in 2023, Willians Astudillo in 2021 and Chris Gimenez in 2018 also hold that distinction.