Twins lose late lead, continue to take punches from White Sox with 4-3 loss

The Chicago White Sox have been Major League Baseball’s punchline over the past two seasons, and now they’re treating the Twins like their own punching bag.

The Twins, in a 4-3 loss at Target Field on Wednesday night, blew a two-run lead in the ninth inning. They were within a strike of a win when Michael A. Taylor smacked a go-ahead, two-run double down the left-field line that landed on the white chalk, and even in a lost season, the Twins are still finding ways to take gut punches.

The Twins entered the year with postseason aspirations, but they sit 10½ games out of a playoff spot and 10½ games ahead of the last-place White Sox. Chicago had lost 205 consecutive games when trailing after eight innings, giving the announced paid crowd of 11,904 a chance to watch some version of history.

With a two-run lead in the ninth inning, Twins lefthander Kody Funderburk pitched into trouble when he allowed a single and a walk. Justin Topa replaced Funderburk with the tying run at first base, struck out a batter, and then gave up a bloop RBI single to Brooks Baldwin.

Next up was Taylor, who played on the Twins’ last playoff team in 2023, He saw all sweepers in his five-pitch at-bat. Taylor whiffed on his first two pitches, watched the next two and then drilled the one left over the heart of the plate. The ball landed so close to the foul line that third baseman Royce Lewis initially signaled for the dugout to challenge it.

It was fair, and the Twins were down.

“Everything was set up for us to just match up in the last inning,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “There was a really good run [of lefty batters] for Fundy followed by a good run [of righties] for Topa. It lined up about as cleanly as you could want. We’ve just got to go out there and make the pitches.”

The Twins have lost five games in a row to the White Sox, and they’ve dropped their record to a season-worst 15 games below .500.

The back-breaking loss spoiled a strong outing from starter Zebby Matthews, who permitted three hits and one run over six innings. Matthews, a 25-year-old righthander, will likely be a core part of the rotation plans next year, and he’s beginning to show glimpses of more consistency.

Matthews, who surrendered a leadoff homer to Edgar Quero in the second inning on a ball that barely cleared the wall and somehow stayed fair down the left-field line, struck out five and issued two walks in his second start against the White Sox in two weeks.

After Matthews gave up a one-out single to Curtis Mead and issued a walk to the next batter, he retired 14 of his final 16 hitters.

“Just trying to learn from not letting the walks or the home runs carry over to the next batter,” Matthews said. “I’m trying to just move on as quickly as possible out there.”

BOXSCORE: Chicago White Sox 4, Twins 3

MLB standings

“Finishing a major league season, which is a long year, on a strong note, continually taking the ball and showing up and doing it is a real thing,” Baldelli said. “There is a physical element to it. There is a mental side of it. Before you can know you can do it, you’ve got to go out there and do it. Zebby is doing that now.”

The Twins, on a night in which temperatures dipped below 60 degrees, handed Matthews a two-run lead in the first inning. Larnach dropped a single into center, extending his on-base streak to a career-high 14 games, and Luke Keaschall lined an RBI double to left field. Larnach, already running on a full-count pitch, scored easily from first base.

Matt Wallner followed with a single to right field. Keaschall briefly stopped at third until he saw Baldwin, the White Sox’s right fielder, fumble the ball. Keaschall scored on the error.

Lewis, who had three hits and two stolen bases, had an RBI single in the sixth inning, but the Twins left two runners on base in two of the final three innings.