A weekend intended to celebrate the Twins' triumphant past quickly devolved into one marked by disappointment at the frustrating now.
With members of the last World Series-winning Twins team in town to relive the glory of 1991, the current squad reverted to the struggles of early 2011, losing to Chicago 7-0 in an ugly outing at Target Field that had manager Ron Gardenhire searching for answers.
"We're going deeper and deeper in the hole. Again," Gardenhire said. "We've been there once, and we're going right back to it, and it's very frustrating."
The White Sox hadn't swept the Twins on the road in seven years but jumped on starter Brian Duensing early and often. Brent Lillibridge hit a 401-foot bomb into the second deck in the second inning, his second homer in as many games, and Paul Konerko launched one to the same spot in the fourth.
Chicago swatted four homers, all pulled to left field, for the first time since May 24.
"We're not throwing very well as pitchers, and we're not scoring very many runs. When both of those things are going badly, it's hard to win ballgames," said Duensing, echoing Gardenhire's notion of the Twins falling into the hole again.
The Twins' offense struggled against starter Jake Peavy, who hadn't won in more than six weeks and entered with a 6.11 ERA since June 30. They mustered three hits over eight innings against the righty and none after the third.
"I think we're all pretty frustrated," said Michael Cuddyer, who went 0-for-3 before Danny Valencia replaced him in the ninth. "It's not fun to go out and lose. It's not fun to lose handily. They stuck it to us all three games. We didn't really even have much of a fight, so to speak, especially today. Today was kind of ugly."
