Twins lose fifth game in a row to Astros; Rocco Baldelli tells them not to worry

HOUSTON — The Twins generated virtually no offense for eight innings on Wednesday, extended their longest home-run drought in eight years, and lost for the fifth straight day to fall further behind in the AL Central — four games — than they've been all season.

And guess what? They don't care.

At least they better not, their manager told them after their listless, mostly non-competitive 5-3 loss to the Astros at Minute Maid Park. Rocco Baldelli, sensing his team is collectively showing the stress of a hitting slump and losing streak, addressed the team afterward and told them to quit thinking about any of it.

"We just need to play baseball and not be worrying about the stresses [over] the fact that we haven't been playing well," Baldelli said after the Twins lost for the 10th time in their last 12 road games. "We have 40 games left on our schedule. Let's play the best possible baseball that we can [and] have zero cares about anything except playing the game."

Play more like the Astros, he might have said. Houston, understandably carefree with a 12 ½-game lead in the AL West, got another spectacular performance from its starting pitcher, hit the first pitch it saw for a home run, and took advantage of some Twins mistakes in the outfield. Houston stayed unbeaten in five meetings with the Twins this year, having outscored them 30-8.

Baldelli's clubhouse oratory was the highlight of the Twins' night, in other words.

"That was great. That was a good speech for us," reviewed Jorge Polanco, whose third-inning double was one of only two hits Astros lefthander Framber Valdez allowed in a seven-inning encore for Justin Verlander's six no-hit innings the night before. "It's always good to get motivated, you know? We're trying to motivate every day, and especially if it comes from our leader, it's better."

Speaking of better, Dylan Bundy said he could have felt better — "I didn't have much on the heater tonight," he said — but he still contributed another good, if brief, start, allowing three hits over five innings.

One of them came on Bundy's first pitch of the game and traveled 400 feet beyond the left-field seats, Jose Altuve's 21st home run of the season. The Astros strung two hits together in the third inning and scored on a Yuli Gurriel sacrifice fly. But though Bundy has never beaten Houston in 10 career tries, the righthander owns a 2.33 ERA this month and has allowed only 12 hits in his four starts — but has yet to throw a pitch in the sixth inning in any of them.

He was pulled after throwing 66 pitches this time, and watched as reliever Mike Fulmer gave up two doubles, one of them because of a misplay by infielder-turned-outfielder Tim Beckham, and a two-run homer to Trey Mancini.

The Twins scored twice in the ninth, on an error and a fielder's choice. Max Kepler lined into a double play and pinch-hitter Gary Sanchez grounded out to finish it off.

The Twins are suffering through a prolonged slump — they are batting just .156 as a team over the past six games, and they haven't homered in five consecutive games, all losses, their longest single-season stretch without a home run since September 2014. But that's dwelling on what they can't change, something Baldelli says he intends to stop, at least in his clubhouse.

"I've said this from my first day here, a relaxed player is a good player," Baldelli exhorted. "So let's free them up and let the guys go do what they do."