Twins 0, White Sox 9: Everything Stinks on the South Side

[Nate Palmer]

The Minnesota Twins completed a baseball game on Monday. Like most of the season thus far, it was another day where very little went right for Minnesota. 

Image courtesy of © Matt Marton-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Chris Paddack: 3.1 IP, 6 H, 9 ER, 4 BB, 2 K (89 pitches, 54 strikes (60.6%)
Home Runs: N/A
Bottom 3 WPA: Chris Paddack (-0.388), Byron Buxton (-0.022), Ty France (-0.020)

Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) 

The Minnesota Twins headed into Monday’s contest with the Chicago White Sox with the need to wipe a bad taste from their mouths. After being swept by the St. Louis Cardinals, the White Sox had to be exactly what the doctor ordered, right? Right?? 

It wasn’t—unless that order was for an unpleasant experience. When the Twins needed their starter Chris Paddack to find the form he had before his second Tommy John surgery (or the way he was out of the bullpen in the 2023 playoffs), the starter brought quite the opposite to the mound. The bats moved quickly for the White Sox in the first two innings, as Andrew Vaughn and Andrew Benintendi hit three-run home runs. 

Paddack became the second straight Twins starter (after Bailey Ober, Sunday) to give up two three-run jolts in one game. As was mentioned on the TV broadcast, the Twins reached a mark of trailing they never found themselves at during the 2024 campaign, trailing by more than three runs to the White Sox. 

After the third inning, Rocco Baldelli removed both Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton from the lineup. That was a new layer of disappointment. With only one hit on the season between the duo, it is a defeating move when, as a fan, you want your team to show some fight. Then again, whatever fight Buxton and Correa are bringing to the field hasn’t produced anything to this point in 2025. Edouard Julien and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. were instead given a chance to spark the offense. 

Darren McCaughan Debut
In games that go sideways like Monday's, the only silver lining is that fans are sometimes treated to seeing a new player. That man this time was Darren McCaughan, who was brought in after Randy Dobnak was sent out after Sunday’s outing. McCaughan would throw 2 ⅔ innings in relief, allowing one hit and striking out two in his Twins debut. It may feel like a modest outing, but it is another bullpen-saving type of outing that the Twins need too often early this season. 

Martin Perez No-Hit Bid
Not only did the Twins' starter get knocked around for nine runs, but White Sox starter Martin Perez looked like an ace when he was toeing the rubber. Perez was so good that he left the game without allowing a hit. After six innings, Perez left the game with the only blemishes being three walks and a hit batter—and with nine strikeouts to boast about. 

It would take Perez’s exit for the Twins to record their first hit. That came off the hot bat of Willi Castro with Mike Vasil on the mound for the White Sox. 

Justin Topa Solid
If there is anything to take away from the game Monday as a positive, it was Justin Topa’s outing. Topa was able to come in for one inning and while he did give up a walk. He also induced Matt Thaiss into a great swinging strikeout. 

What’s Next?
The Twins will again go for their first win of the season on Tuesday. Simeon Woods-Richardson was a savior to the rotation in 2024, and will look to save the Twins from an 0-5 start in 2025. The White Sox are scheduled to send right-hander Shane Smith, who will be making his MLB debut. Chicago selected Smith in the Rule 5 Draft from the Milwaukee Brewers.  

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet

	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TOT
Topa	0	17	0	8	0	19	44
Varland	0	12	0	23	0	0	35
McCaughan	0	0	0	0	0	31	31
Durán	0	0	0	24	0	0	24
Jax	0	21	0	0	0	0	21
Coulombe	0	0	0	16	0	0	16
Sands	0	14	0	0	0	0	14
Alcalá	0	0	0	12	0	0	12

 

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[USAFChief]

Turns out the offense was humming along nicely in St Louis. 

[Aggies7]

White Sox are a known juggernaut. Sometimes you just tip your cap and get em tomorrow 

[thelanges5]

Too early for this?

[darwin22]

Missed the game (intentionally) and glad I did so.

Words are hard to come by at this point, but here's a few to describe this team & their manager:

Apathetic

Rudderless

Uninterested

Indifferent

Nothing to say about the pitiful performance by Paddack today.  Just a complete meltdown. At least Ober had an excuse for his bad outing yesterday.

I said after the abysmal 12-27 finish last season with very little done to improve this team in the offseason we were a 4th place team that would lose at least 90 games.

At this point, that prediction appears overly optimistic.

 

 

 

[OvertheHill]

I don’t think that this team is anywhere near as “talented “ as we’re told, and the management and ownership situation isn’t exactly conducive to elevating the talent we have. The body language of this team has been either confused or outright negative for a while now. In another market they would have cleaned house by now. 

[Twins GFP]

Fire Rocco!
Trade Buxton!
Trade Correa!
Trade Wallner!
Trade Ober!
Trade Lopez!
Release Paddack!
Release France!
Release Vazquez!
Burn Down Target Field!
Move the team to Montreal!
Sell the te.... wait a minute... that one doesn't fit.

[AceWrigley]

I think the Rocco era is coming to an end.

[gregens]

On the bright-side the Twins got a runner all the way over to second base today!

[Patzky]

I'm still excited about the youth but sending them up into a cesspool like this might damage their development.

 

Yea a Winokur-Eeles-Correa-Keaschall infield would be fun.. 

[gregens]

2 minutes ago, AceWrigley said:

I think the Rocco era is coming to an end.

I wish the Rocco era would come to an end asap.   It certainly wouldn't fix all the problems, but it's the lowest hanging fruit.

[sweetmusicviola16]

Listless  team.

[rv78]

One pathetic performance followed by another. Tell me, what message do you send your players when you pull the 2 superstars in the lineup after 3 innings? I know everyone here who drinks the kool-aid is going to say it was done so they didn't get hurt in a blowout but....... The White Sox can score 9 runs in the first 3 innings but I don't think we can score 9 in the last 6 innings. That shows no confidence in your players. Neither Correa nor Buck have done anything hit-wise to this point. Wouldn't the extra at bats help? Or will they get out of their funk by sitting on the bench? Please fire Rocco ASAP.

[Patzky]

Twins Day of Invisibility 

[Twins GFP]

5 minutes ago, rv78 said:

One pathetic performance followed by another. Tell me, what message do you send your players when you pull the 2 superstars in the lineup after 3 innings? I know everyone here who drinks the kool-aid is going to say it was done so they didn't get hurt in a blowout but....... The White Sox can score 9 runs in the first 3 innings but I don't think we can score 9 in the last 6 innings. That shows no confidence in your players. Neither Correa nor Buck have done anything hit-wise to this point. Wouldn't the extra at bats help? Or will they get out of their funk by sitting on the bench? Please fire Rocco ASAP.

In a bubble, I agree with the optics on pulling them.  I did not listen to the postgame... was there any comment on the why they were pulled?

[Vanimal46]

We can pull the plug on the Chris Paddack experiment any time now…

[jmlease1]

Yikes. 2 hits? Only 2 effing hits?

Paddack demonstrating that spring training is meaningless. Did he have the same virus as Ober? because that's just awful.

but I'm still far more concerned about the horrendous offense, where apparently only 1-2 players per game are currently allowed to not suck. Martin Perez is the definition of Just Another Guy as a starter, but once again apparently all you have to be is a southpaw to ruin the Twins day. Appreciate that Jeffers showed up, but...yuck.

No need to watch the replay tonight, that's for sure!

[UK Twin]

Disgusted. Absolutely disgusted. Rocco just gave up after 3 innings when he pulled Buxton and Correa from the game. Disgusting attitude from the manager. Even if we don't win the game try and get something out of it. Buxton and Correa need hits for crying out loud. 

Rocco needs to go right now. The team is still in the slump from last season and it's on Baldelli, simple as that. We just got our butts kicked by the worst team in baseball and it was embarrassing to watch. 

[Patzky]

5 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

We can pull the plug on the Chris Paddack experiment any time now…

The Paddack Plug? We need to pull a whole power strip..

[Twins GFP]

17 minutes ago, gregens said:

I wish the Rocco era would come to an end asap.   It certainly wouldn't fix all the problems, but it's the lowest hanging fruit.

I realize this comment will get smashed right now, but Rocco isn't responsible for the performances of Lopez, Wallner, Correa, Buxton, France.

Starting Paddack was not really his call either (more FO).  He didn't look good, but they needed innings from him today, so he was going to throw 80 pitches good or bad.

The only thing I feel Rocco blew was keeping Ober in so long yesterday.  He was sick, should never have gotten out of the 2nd inning. Pulling Correa/Buxton today was also wrong.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

The Twins should be 4-0 right now. If they didn't have to play the games, everything would be fine. 

 

[RpR]

4 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

I realize this comment will get smashed right now, but Rocco isn't responsible for the performances of Lopez, Wallner, Correa, Buxton, France.

How about Julien?

[William K Johnson]

Two hits and one of those was a dribbler up the third base line.    It is time to hire a new hitting coach, oops, we already did that.

[strumdatjag]

So, I’m thinking the Twins will be sellers at the trade deadline.

 

[gregens]

10 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

Yikes. 2 hits? Only 2 effing hits?

Paddack demonstrating that spring training is meaningless. Did he have the same virus as Ober? because that's just awful.

but I'm still far more concerned about the horrendous offense, where apparently only 1-2 players per game are currently allowed to not suck. Martin Perez is the definition of Just Another Guy as a starter, but once again apparently all you have to be is a southpaw to ruin the Twins day. Appreciate that Jeffers showed up, but...yuck.

No need to watch the replay tonight, that's for sure!

Just so you know.   The Jeffers single was a 2 mile an hour roller on the 3rd base line that went fare because it bumped into a piece of dirt.

[1985Fan]

This is hard to watch. Makes me angry that I got suckered into watching after seeing the collapse last year and the do-nothing offseason. I should know better! Shame on me….

[jmlease1]

3 minutes ago, gregens said:

Just so you know.   The Jeffers single was a 2 mile an hour roller on the 3rd base line that went fare because it bumped into a piece of dirt.

well, a hit is a hit. but he also had 2 walks. perfectly acceptable day for Jeffers. No complaints about Gasper drawing 2 as well. Thanks, Willi for getting another hit.

Everyone else go back to your hotel room and think about what you failed to do...

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, Patzky said:

I'm still excited about the youth but sending them up into a cesspool like this might damage their development.

 

Yea a Winokur-Eeles-Correa-Keaschall infield would be fun.. 

I too am excited about the youth. I have been excited about the youth for ten years. Why? Because that is where hope lies. Despair and disappointment lives in the present.

[jkcarew]

I remain optimistic that the pitching will settle into a state of decent to good-ish.

I am less optimistic than ever that the batting order will reach any sustainable state beyond weak.

Would really like to see a quick hook on Baldelli, if for no other reason than to get to a situation as quickly as possible where the plug can be pulled on the season and we can go with the youth. Get so tired of the perpetual goal of AL Central mediocrity.

[Peter]

Is it safe to say seasons officially over?