Padres fall to Twins and lose series
MINNEAPOLIS(KYMA, KECY) - The San Diego Padres wrapped up a disappointing series in Minnesota on Sunday afternoon, falling 7–2 to the Twins in the rubber match at Target Field.
The Padres once again struggled to generate early offense and fell victim to another dominant outing from Twins right-hander Joe Ryan.
San Diego opened the game with rookie David Morgan, who worked a clean two innings in his second big-league appearance.
Morgan showed poise, allowing no hits and retiring six of the seven batters he faced before giving way to left-hander Kyle Hart. The plan to piece together the game through the bullpen fell apart quickly in the third inning.
With one out and a runner on, Byron Buxton jumped on a Hart changeup that caught too much of the plate and sent it deep into the left-field seats for a two-run homer. It was Buxton's 29th of the season.
In the fourth, the Twins extended their lead after Luke Keaschall reached base and came around to score on a two-out single by James Outman. Then in the fifth, things unraveled further.
Keaschall struck again with an RBI single, followed by a sacrifice fly from Ryan Jeffers and a sharp line drive from Royce Lewis that brought in another. By the time the fifth inning ended, the Padres trailed 6–0.
Lewis added one more RBI in the seventh, dunking a bloop single into right field that scored Brooks Lee and made it 7–0.
The Padres didn't go quietly, however. In the ninth inning, Freddy Fermin doubled into the left-field corner to bring home their first run of the day.
Moments later, Bryce Johnson grounded a single up the middle to score Fermin, giving San Diego a brief glimmer of offense. But the damage had long been done.
Joe Ryan was overpowering from start to finish, tossing seven scoreless innings while striking out eight and scattering five hits. San Diego never managed to string together more than one hit in an inning against the Twins ace, and several promising at-bats ended in weak contact or strikeouts.
San Diego finishes the road trip having lost four of six, including two in Minnesota, and now heads home with serious questions surrounding their starting rotation depth and late-inning bullpen stability.
