Twins fall apart during blowout loss to White Sox

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Sep 6, 2026

Published in Baseball

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CHICAGO – In front of a national audience on “Sunday Night Baseball,” with longshot playoff hopes fading, the Minnesota Twins played one of their ugliest games of the season in a 10-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Rate Field.

The Twins offense produced four hits and struck out 15 times. The Twins pitching staff issued nine unintentional walks and hit a batter.

It wasn’t a competitive showing, and the Twins’ longshot playoff odds keep growing taller. They fell 4 1/2 games out of a playoff spot with 19 to play, dropping two of three games in their final series of the season against the American League Central-leading White Sox at Rate Field.

The Twins haven’t won any of their last eight road series.

To finish the season with a winning record, the Twins (68-75) must put up a 14-5 record over the final three weeks. To qualify for the playoffs, the Twins still need to leapfrog four teams ahead of them in the wild-card standings.

In a bullpen game for the White Sox’s pitching staff, the Twins didn’t put together many good swings. Brooks Lee hit a solo homer to begin the seventh inning, and he was the only runner who reached second base. White Sox reliever Jordan Hicks and lefty Hagen Smith, who has been dominant since moving to the bullpen, combined to retire 13 consecutive batters from the second to sixth innings.

Twins starting pitcher Bailey Ober allowed one run on four hits and three walks in 4 1/3 innings, striking out six. He was pulled after he gave up two hits in the fifth inning, including an RBI single to Munetaka Murakami.

The White Sox scored three runs in the sixth inning, an inning that started with Tristan Peters hitting a bloop double off Twins lefty reliever Kody Funderburk. Twins rookie Andrew Morris plunked his first batter, then surrendered a two-run double to Sam Antonacci that deflected off second baseman Kody Clemens’ glove. Randal Grichuk added an RBI single off Morris in a 0-2 count.

Twins reliever Garrett Acton issued a four-pitch walk with the bases loaded in the seventh inning, gave up a solo home run to Randal Grichuk in the eighth and an ground-rule RBI double to Tristan Peters. Kyle Teel followed with a three-run homer off Tommy Nance in the eighth inning.

The Twins will continue their six-game road trip with three games in Detroit, beginning at 3:10 p.m. ET Monday.

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