It looked like all it took to rejuvenate the Minnesota Twins offense was a whiff of U.S. Cellular Field.
This perception was a wrong number, as the Twins dropped an 8-0 decision to the White Sox Saturday afternoon.
A few hours after the Twins demolished the White Sox (12-5) Friday evening in the first of a three-game set, Minnesota reverted back to its struggling ways at the plate. Even keeping cleanup hitter Justin Morneau in the three-hole couldn't help the Twins produce any runs against White Sox starter Bartolo Colon and the pitchers who succeeded hm.
Colon, the 2005 Cy Young winner, held the Twins scoreless for six innings, limiting them to just three hits. He also issued two walks and struck out two.
The Twins threatened in the third inning when Nick Punto singled with two outs and advanced to second on Denard Span's walk. However, Colon retired Alexi Casilla on a fly to third baseman Josh Fields. Justin Morneau's groundout ended the threat.
They wouldn't mount another scoring threat until the seventh inning when Octavio Dotel relieved Colon. The Twins loaded the bases, but Matt Thornton entered the game and retired Casilla on an infielder grounder to squelch the rally.
The Twins mounted another offensive flurry in the eighth against Mike McDougal when Kubel and Cuddyer strung together back-to-back one-out singles. That threat fizzled, too, when Brendan Harris, pinch-hitting for Joe Crede, grounded into a double play.
Meanwhile, the White Sox, who have been struggling themselves to score, touched Twins' starter Francisco Liriano for a run in the fourth as Wilson Betemit doubled with two outs and crossed home on Alexi Ramirez's single.
Liriano then caved in during a four-run fifth inning. He surrendered bases-loaded walks to Jermaine Dye and Paul Konerko to force in a pair of runs, and Betemit followed with a fielder's choice that scored Carlos Quintin and Ramirez delivered a run-scoring single.
The White Sox added three more runs in the seventh. Quintin started things off with a homer off Philip Humber, who later surrendered a two-run single to Corky Miller.
The Twins have scored just 25 runs in their first six games. Nearly half of them came in the their victory against the White Sox Friday night.
Three Twins starters, Michael Cuddyer, Joe Crede, and Carlos Gomez, are batting .211 or less. Together, they have only worked out five walks and struck out 25 times.
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