Misery will have company when the visiting Minnesota Twins open a three-game series against the Washington Nationals on Monday.
The Twins have lost a season-high six straight games after falling 5-2 to the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday, while the Nationals limp home after a 2-7 road trip that ended with five straight losses, including three to the Philadelphia Phillies over the weekend.
Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli met with his team Sunday after the Twins tied the game in the top of the ninth, only to lose it on a walk-off three-run home run in the bottom half.
“It can feel like you are underneath something, and nothing that you do is going to get you out of it,” Baldelli said. “There is a lot that we can do to get out of it, and I want our guys to know that. We’re very close. We’re an at-bat or two away. We’re just talking one or two at-bats in a row from winning today … and it’s that close.”
The Twins have scored just nine runs during their losing streak, and four of those runs came during the ninth inning Saturday in a game they lost 11-4. On Sunday they managed just four hits.
The Nationals were not close on Sunday. After blowing a ninth-inning lead Saturday and losing a heartbreaker 4-3 in 10 innings, the Nationals saw the Phillies pull away late for an 11-5 win on Sunday.
Washington relievers entered the game with a 3.35 ERA but surrendered eight runs in the loss.
“Our bullpen’s been doing a great job,” manager Dave Martinez said. “Today was one of those days it didn’t happen.”
Washington was held to three hits — two of them homers by Eddie Rosario and Jesse Winker — over the first eight innings before adding cosmetic runs in the ninth.
Minnesota right-hander Pablo Lopez (4-3, 3.93 ERA) pitches Monday against rookie left-hander Mitchell Parker (2-2, 3.09).
After consecutive starts in which he worked at least six innings and allowed one earned run, Lopez was more hittable last time out. Against the Yankees on Wednesday, he gave up three runs on 10 hits over 6 1/3 innings while striking out three without a walk. Seven of the 10 hits he surrendered came in two-strike counts, and three of those came in 0-2 counts.
“He put himself in the driver’s seat,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The two-strike execution of his pitches was not where it normally is, and it led to some baserunners, some extended innings.”
Lopez, who spent his first five seasons with the Marlins, is 4-3 with a 4.98 ERA in 13 starts against the Nationals.
Parker, 24, will be making his seventh major league start and has yet to allow more than three earned runs in any of them. Against the White Sox on Tuesday, he gave up three runs on five hits over five innings. He struck out three and walked two.
The three runs came on a third-inning home run by Andrew Vaughn.
“It was a good pitch. But good pitch, good hitter,” Parker said. “A little disappointing, because it was a good one. Felt good. But it’s going to happen. Just have to move on.”
–Field Level Media
