Twins strolled off for 2nd straight day in Houston
HOUSTON– In the minutes after the Twins were strolled off by the Houston Astros, Willi Castro was still trying to piece together what, exactly, had taken place. Astros 2nd baseman Mauricio Dubón hit a ball to Castro in left that he jumped for it looked like it struck his glove before rattling off the wall.
However with a quirky outfield style at the ballpark, it was hard to inform.
“I saw it,” Castro said of the ball, which went for the game-winning hit in the Twins 2-1 loss to the Astros on Sunday afternoon at Daikin Park. “I do not understand what occurred there. I think I ought to have caught that ball. It got right because corner there. … I do not know if I hit the wall before I leapt or if I leapt in the past, but yeah, I should have caught that ball.”
But with the way things have chosen the Twins (36-35) lately, they still might have lost even if Castro had actually caught it. The loss, which came in the 10th inning after Jhoan Duran had permitted the game-tying go to score in the ninth inning, topped off a series sweep for the Astros (41-30).
And it began a day in which the Twins had chance after opportunity but might not capitalize, finishing 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and leaving 8 men on.
“It kind of feels like we’re swimming upstream a bit today,” supervisor Rocco Baldelli said. “Nothing’s coming too easily for us but you have to discover a method to piece something together and make it work even when it’s not going easily and you’re not feeling excellent and all of those things.”
The Twins had actually been leading for nearly the whole game when Brooks Lee, who now has Big league Baseball’s longest striking streak at 15 games, sent out a pitch from starter Brandon Walter out to left field in the third inning.
The Twins scored six runs in the series, all of which scored through the longball as they struggled to press stumble upon.
“Somehow I simply keep assembling good at-bats from both sides of the plate. Got to keep it going,” Lee, who had 3 hits on Sunday, said. “Hopefully a couple of guys get going and we just try to win some games. That’s most important.”
And for much of Sunday, it looked like they would.
Pitching in his hometown in front of a cheering area of around 30 friends and family members, starter Simeon Woods Richardson was outstanding, beginning his trip by retiring the first 13 batters he faced. The first and only struck he gave up came in the 5th inning. His only walk of the day followed that, however he secured and retired the next 2 batters in order to end the Astros’ risk.
“He tossed a lots of strikes,” Baldelli said. “I imply they were coming out of their shoes trying to swing at every strike they saw. He got a lot of weak contact.”
After just 53 pitches, with a rested bullpen, an off day on Monday and a slim one-run advantage, Baldelli then turned it over to the bullpen, getting a combined 3 scoreless innings from Brock Stewart, who started out two of 3 batters he dealt with, and Louie Varland, who tossed 2 innings for the first time this season.
But in the ninth, Duran strolled the very first batter he faced, Jeremy Peña, and he ended up concerning score on a Victor Caratini sacrifice fly. And after the Twins could not advance their automated runner past 2nd base in the top of the 10th against all-star better Josh Hader, Dubón ended it in the bottom of the inning.
“We have actually got to find a method to get 3 outs at the end of the game,” Baldelli said. “Pretty simple but we also have to help ourselves a bit more, too.”
Initially Published: June 15, 2025 at 4:29 PM CDT