Last-place White Sox rally again to complete four-game sweep of Twins in near-empty Target Field

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Sep 5, 2025

Published in Baseball

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The Twins, in their 64-year history, have played 513 home games against the Chicago White Sox. There were 173 games at Metropolitan Stadium, 203 at the Metrodome and 137 more at Target Field.

Never were any of those past Twins teams swept in a four-game home series against White Sox, an original league and division rival.

That streak ended Thursday when the Twins took an 11-8 loss to a White Sox team that maintains the worst record in the American League. The Twins lost their final six games to Chicago this season and dropped the season series 8-5 for just the second time in the past nine seasons. Last season, the Twins went 12-1 against the White Sox.

If the thrashing from one of the worst teams in baseball didn’t represent rock bottom already, the Twins lost catcher Ryan Jeffers to a head injury in the fourth inning.

The Twins bullpen, which dealt away its five best relievers at the trade deadline, blew a three-run lead in the seventh inning. Rookie Travis Adams gave up two singles before White Sox catcher Kyle Teel crushed a tying three-run homer to right field.

Adams hit his last batter, and Twins lefthander Génesis Cabrera, who replaced Adams, plunked the first batter he faced. Andrew Benintendi drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly before the Twins refused to let the inning end. Second baseman Luke Keaschall booted a potential inning-ending grounder, and Cabrera allowed another run to score on a balk.

The fans who stuck around after a 90-minute rain delay to watch the bottom two teams in the American League standings on a chilly 57-degree evening in a 3-hour, 26-minute game responded with boos.

In the four-game series, the Twins held a one-run lead after seven innings Monday, a two-run lead after eight innings Wednesday and a three-run lead after six innings Thursday. They were all losses for a Twins bullpen that holds a 5.24 ERA since the trade deadline.

Twins reliever Noah Davis, who has an 18.00 ERA in nine major league appearances with two teams this season, gave up two more runs in the ninth inning. After an error from Royce Lewis, Davis served up a two-run homer to Colson Montgomery, a 454-foot moonshot that bounced off the empty seats — there was one fan sitting in the section — and it ricochet onto the field. Montgomery hit five home runs in seven games against the Twins since Aug. 22.

The announced paid attendance at the last three games of the Twins-White Sox series amounted to 36,813 fans, which wouldn’t constitute a sellout at Target Field.

Trailing by three runs in the fourth inning, the Twins offense sent all nine hitters to the plate in a five-run frame. Matt Wallner and Austin Martin started the rally with back-to-back walks. Then Ryan Fitzgerald, Keaschall and Trevor Larnach hit three consecutive RBI singles off White Sox righthander Jonathan Cannon, Larnach reaching on an infield single that deflected off first baseman Lenyn Sosa’s mitt.

Pinch hitter Mickey Gasper, who replaced Jeffers, added a go-ahead, two-run single on a line drive up the middle against lefty reliever Tyler Alexander.

Wallner added a solo homer in the fifth inning, and Gasper drove in a run on a groundout in the sixth before Twins relievers permitted seven runs (six earned) over the final three innings.

Taj Bradley, facing the White Sox for the second time in two weeks, surrendered eight hits and four runs across five innings. He struck out seven, matching his second-highest total of the season, mostly with his curveball.

He was stung during a three-run third inning, which started with a leadoff double from Edgar Quero and an RBI single from Teel.

Three batters later, after a mound visit, Bradley gave up a two-run double to Curtis Mead on a fastball he left over the middle of the plate.

Bradley had trouble solving the White Sox, of all teams, whether he was pitching for the Twins or Tampa Bay Rays this year. In three starts against Chicago, he yielded 21 hits and 15 runs in 11⅔ innings (11.57 ERA). Bradley owns a 4.24 ERA in his other 21 starts.