Twins find little offense in loss to White Sox in first game of doubleheader

Matt Wallner's solo homer was the only run they could muster.

Minnesota Twins pitcher Bailey Ober (17) delivers the ball during the first inning against the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago on July 10, 2024. / Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

Matt Wallner extended the Twins’ home run streak to 27 games with a solo shot in the seventh inning, but Minnesota found little offense outside of that in a 3-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox in the first game of a doubleheader Wednesday afternoon in Chicago. 

While the Twins (52-40) have homered in 27 consecutive games, which matches the third-longest streak in MLB history, they weren’t able to get much going at the plate in Game 1 Wednesday outside of Wallner’s 378-foot homer to right-center field in the seventh that made it a 3-1 game. 

Wallner was 2 for 4 overall, also hitting a fourth-inning single.

The White Sox (27-67) plated the first run in the fifth inning when Paul DeJong scored Gavin Sheets, who led off the inning with a double, with a sacrifice fly to left field. Luis Robert Jr.’s two-run, 416-foot homer in the sixth inning put the White Sox up 3-0. 

Those were all the runs Twins starter Bailey Ober allowed in a mostly solid outing in which he gave up four hits in all while fanning six across six innings of work. Ober fell to 8-5 on the season with the loss.

The Twins had an early opportunity to get White Sox starter Erick Fedde out of the game as Willi Castro drew a leadoff walk in the first inning, Carlos Correa singled the next at-bat and Trevor Larnach drew a walk after that to load the bases. But Fedde got Jose Miranda to fly out, struck out Carlos Santana and got Brooks Lee to ground into a fielder's choice to get out without any damage.

Correa did stay hot at the plate, going 3 for 4 in the game.

Fedde ended up going five innings, allowing just four hits and no runs while fanning five, improving to 7-3 on the season with the victory.

The Twins and White Sox will meet for the second of the doubleheader at approximately 4:40 p.m.