MINNEAPOLIS — The Twins failed to enter the All-Star break on a high, dropping 11-0 to the White Sox on Sunday at Target Field.
Alex Kirilloff had the Twins only hit in the fifth inning of White Sox starter Dylan Cease. Meanwhile, the White Sox stacked up 16 hits against Twins pitchers.
The Twins are 50-44, still holding a two-game lead over Cleveland in the American League Central, with the 46-46 White Sox in third place, three games back.
Twins starter Chris Archer was cruising through his first four innings, giving up only two hits. That laste until the third batter of the fifth inning. Archer had two outs but proceeded to give up a walk and three consecutive hits, including a two-run single to Tim Anderson. Tyler Duffey replaced him but also surrendered a two-run double to Andrew Vaughn to put the Twins down 4-0.
In all, Archer (2-4) went 4 2⁄3 innings and gave up four runs on five hits and a walk while striking out five.
The seventh inning was a total meltdown from Joe Smith. He coughed up five hits and six runs, all off home runs. Yoan Moncada and Vaughn went back-to-back to score three runs between them, Then Josh Harrison's three-run homer really put the game out of reach. Jovani Moran had to come in to make the last two outs to staunch the bleeding.
Emilio Pagan pitched the last inning for the Twins and gave up three hits and a run from Adam Engel's double.
Cease (9-4) lasted seven innings with just that one hit and two walks. He struck out eight.
