This feels like the either the low point for the Minnesota Twins, or the lasting imagery of a lost season.
There's the matter of another considerable loss to the White Sox, and one James Shields started. The Twins could've made Shields baseball's first 10-game loser this season, but instead Shields dealt seven shutout innings en route to an easy White Sox winner. The Sox are now winners of three straight games for just the second time this year.
But making matters sillier, two members of Minnesota's coaching staff got the heave-ho during a crazy sixth inning. First, third base coach Gene Glynn was ejected by third base umpire Gerry Davis for reasons that weren't immediately clear.
UPDATE:
Not even two pitches later, Shields tried a fake-to-first-throw-to-third move with runners on the corners, and home plate umpire Pat Hoberg called a balk. Rick Renteria came out to plead for Hoberg to check with the other umpires. The crew convened, and emerged with a no-balk call, which even the Twins TV crew said was correct (Hoberg probably couldn't see Shields' back foot step off the rubber from behind home plate). Still, it's odd to see umpires overrule a call without a review, and that set off Paul Molitor and led to his ejection.
Shields capped the inning with a backwards K of Max Kepler on a 71 mph curveball.
The Twins were able to avoid the shutout despite two outs and nobody on. Juan Minaya walked two batters in a row then gave up an RBI single on an 0-2 count to Ehire Adrianza, who was the lone productive Twin. He went 4-for-4 while the rest of the Twins lineup went 1-for-28, and his single forced Renteria to go to Luis Avilan to get the final out.
That's all Minnesota had going for it, because this game was all White Sox after four.
Kyle Gibson did his usual thing against the Sox through three, although he was assisted by a pair of baserunning outs. He picked off Tim Anderson in the second inning, and then Charlie Tilson made an ill-advised break for home on a pitch that bounced away from catcher Bobby Wilson, but toward the mound. Gibson executed a shovel pass for the out.
After that point, the Sox stopped doing him favors. Jose Abreu and Daniel Palka started the fourth with singles, and Leury Garcia doubled home Abreu for the game's first run. Tim Anderson then shot a first-pitch slider to right for an RBI single, and Omar Narvaez was able to put the bat on the ball with Anderson in motion for an RBI groundout and a 3-0 lead.
Insurance trickled in over the rest of the night. Abreu golfed a two-out Gibson slider out to left for his 12th homer of the season in the fifth, and Narvaez and Tilson strung together two-out singles to score Anderson in the sixth.
Avisail Garcia capped off the Sox' scoring in the eighth when Ryan Pressly threw him one elevated slider too many, and Garcia lined it over the wall in left for his second homer in as many games.
Bullet points:
*Moncada committed his 12th error, but he also converted a couple of difficult plays, including a terrific diving stab and accurate throw on a hard grounder to his right.
*Gibson did go seven innings on 113 pitches to save the Twins a reliever for the finale, but it's his third loss against the Sox in 12 starts just the same.
Record: 28-51 | Box score
