A tight, well-pitched game Tuesday was interrupted by another inning of defensive shenanigans by the Twins.
Twins defense collapses, bullpen falters in 6-1 loss to Padres
A solid effort by Twins starter Louie Varland was wasted when the Twins committed three errors in the seventh inning.
May 10, 2023 at 11:23AM
San Diego broke open a tie game in the seventh inning by scoring two runs on no hits but three Twins errors to pull away to a 6-1 win in the first game of a three-game series at Target Field.
North St. Paul's Louie Varland held the Padres to an RBI single by Matt Carpenter in the fourth, and the Twins responded in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single by Jose Miranda.
"Louie looked great," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of Varland, who allowed one run on five hits in six innings. "Louie threw the ball very well."
The game settled into a nice duel between Varland and the Padres' Michael Wacha. But the game unraveled in the seventh with Twins reliever Griffin Jax on the mound.
"It was another tough night offensively," Baldelli said.
The Twins' offensive slump from their road trip to Chicago and Cleveland continued. The team had only five hits, including a single by Joey Gallo that snapped and 0-for-25 slump. Carlos Correa went 0-for-5, dropping his batting average to .185.
In the seventh, Ha-Seong Kim reached on a throwing error by Alex Kirilloff, but Jax didn't help things by not taking a direct route to first before trying to catch the throw. Kim scored as Austin Nola laid down a perfect squeeze bunt. Fernando Tatis Jr. reached on a fielder's choice, stole second and advanced to third on Christian Vázquez's throwing error.
Vásquez then tried to throw behind Tatis at third after a walk to Jake Cronenworth but hit the runner in the back and the ball rolled away, allowing Tatis to score as the announced crowd of 16,882 booed.
"When we play small ball … that's going to carry us for the rest of the season," Tatis said.
And when Manny Machado blasted a three-run home run into the second deck in left in the ninth inning, many of those Twins fans left.
"Just putting it all together. If we can do that, we're going to be the best team in baseball," said Machado, who hit his fifth homer and made two hard-charging barehand scoops at third base to get ground-ball outs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Gerrit Cole gave up his opt-out right on Monday and will remain with the New York Yankees under a contract that runs through 2028 rather than become a free agent.
