Minnesota scored five runs in the eighth inning but couldn’t get the tying run to cross home plate as they lost a slugfest to the Cubs, 11-10 Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
The Cubs jumped out to an 8-0 lead early with eight runs in the second inning, highlighted by starting pitcher Jon Lester’s three-run homer and back-to-back-to-back doubles by Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez and Kyle Schwarber.
Lance Lynn was charged with seven earned runs and was pulled after recording just five outs. The free-agent addition was supposed to bolster the Twins’ starting rotation, but Lynn has done the opposite with a 5.49 ERA in 16 starts, the worst of which was this one.
The Twins actually gave Lynn a 1-0 lead on Jake Cave’s solo home run in the second inning, but they were trailing 9-1 after four innings before they started chipping away. They scored two runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth, which the Cubs answered with on run in the bottom half of each inning.
Minnesota was down 11-5 to start the eighth inning, but three straight hits – an RBI single by Logan Morrison, a two-run triple by Wilson Astudillo, and a two-run homer by Mitch Garver – suddenly had the Twins back within one, 11-10.
Eddie Rosario reached base with a two-out single in the ninth and advanced to second on a wild pitch, but was left stranded there on Eduardo Escobar’s groundout to end the game.
It’s the fourth time the Twins have been swept this season, and the loss drops them 10 games under .500 for the first time since the end of the 2016 season, when they finished 59-103.
The Cubs pounded out 46 hits in the three-game sweep on their way to scoring a ridiculous 35 runs.
