Twins continue to take punches from White Sox with 4-3 loss

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Sep 3, 2025

Published in Baseball

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MINNEAPOLIS — The Chicago White Sox have been the major league’s punchline for the past two seasons, and now they’re treating the Minnesota Twins like their own punching bag.

In a 4-3 loss at Target Field on Wednesday, the Twins came within a strike of a win. Instead, ex-Twin Michael A. Taylor hit 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 punches.

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

Next up was Taylor, who played on the Twins’ last playoff team in 2023, and he saw three pitches after whiffing on the first two pitches. Taylor saw five pitches, all sweepers, and the last one was left over the heart of the plate, and the ball landed so close to the foul line that third baseman Royce Lewis immediately signaled for the dugout to challenge it.

It was fair and the Twins were down.

The White Sox had lost 205 consecutive games when trailing after eight innings, according to Twins.TV researchers, so the announced paid crowd of 11,904 saw some version of history.

Byron Buxton opened the bottom of the ninth inning with a leadoff double and Trevor Larnach followed with a walk, but White Sox reliever Jordan Leasure retired the next three batters.

The loss spoiled a positive game for two players the Twins are closely evaluating over the final three-and-a-half-weeks of the season. Zebby Matthews allowed three hits and one run over six innings in one of his strongest starts of the year. Matthews, the 25-year-old right-hander, will likely be a core part of the rotation plans next year, and he’s beginning to show glimpses of more consistency.

Then there was Royce Lewis, who had three singles, two stolen bases and an RBI. After the Twins traded 10 major league players in their stunning trade deadline sell-off, Lewis remains as one of the faces of the franchise.

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.

The Twins finally played a clean defensive game after they committed an error in the last five games, which included a running catch from left fielder Austin Martin against the wall. Matthews clapped after Martin’s catch and the fans sitting behind the Twins’ dugout offered an ovation.

In Matthews’ last six starts, he owns a 3-1 record with a 3.73 ERA over 31 1/3 innings.

The Twins, on a night where 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.

The Twins squandered some opportunities to add to their lead against White Sox starter Yoendrys Gómez. They loaded the bases in the fourth inning, but Martin bounced into a fielder’s choice grounder. Buxton hit a leadoff triple in the fifth inning after Baldwin misjudged a ball that landed in front of the wall, but Buxton was thrown out at the plate attempting to score on Keaschall’s dribbler to the mound.

Ryan Jeffers opened the sixth inning with a leadoff single, and he advanced to second on a groundout. Lewis followed with a line-drive RBI single to left field.

Twins reliever Cole Sands pitched two scoreless innings behind Matthews, striking out four of his six batters.

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