Minnesota Twins pitcher Griffin Jax reacts after coming out of the game during the ninth inning of baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Wednesday, July 30, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Twins’ series with the Boston Red Sox ended in blowout fashion Wednesday afternoon.
Minnesota, after winning the opener in walk-off fashion Monday, ended up dropping two out of three. Despite playing Boston close for the first three innings, the Twins (51-57) got bombarded for a four-run fifth and a five-run ninth in a 13-1 loss at Target Field.
As the Thursday trade deadline nears, Minnesota dropped to six games back of the third Wild Card, pending the Seattle Mariners’ result later Wednesday night. No trades involving the Twins were made before or during the game. But that didn’t stop the rumors from flying around social media, with the loss continuing to deflate a sinking Twins season.
It was their fourth straight series loss.
Red Sox (59-51) right-hander Brayan Bello held the Twins at bay. He pitched seven innings of one-run ball, with four strikeouts and four walks. Minnesota collected five hits against him.
On a two-out single in the first inning, the Twins’ Kody Clemens tried to score from first base. It did not work. The Red Sox executed a perfect relay to nab Clemens at the plate.
Trevor Story promptly led off the next inning by sneaking a line drive over the left-field fence for a home run against Twins starter Zebby Matthews. It was Story’s second straight game with a homer and 17th of the year.
Minnesota’s Matt Wallner, though, responded with his own bomb in the bottom half. Wallner, a left-handed batter, swatted it out to roughly the same spot as Story. It was the 13th for Wallner — tied for second on the team behind only the recently injured Byron Buxton.
Boston broke the tie in the top of the third. The struggling Connor Wong landed a very fortunate bloop double, and he eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Abraham Toro to put the Red Sox back in front, 2-1.
Wong also ignited the Red Sox’ rally in the fifth. He singled, followed by a Roman Anthony double. Both scored on a single by Jarren Duran.
That brought an end to Matthews’ afternoon. He exited with the Twins trailing 4-1, having thrown 4 1/3 innings on 74 pitches. He’d survived a Story leadoff double and a dropped third strike in the fourth inning, but he never got into any kind of groove after a perfect top of the first.
Boston continued rallying against reliever Justin Topa, who surrendered a two-run single to Masataka Yoshida. The Red Sox broke it open with a four-run fifth inning, extending their lead to 6-1.
The Twins almost had a rally going in the bottom of the fifth after Harrison Bader beat out an infield hit, and Trevor Larnach singled to put runners on the corners. But Brooks Lee, who’d been scorching hot over the last two days, grounded into an ill-timed double play.
It seemed to put a dagger in not only the Twins’ hopes of winning this game, but in their larger-term outlook. As the final seeds of a series loss were planted, trade rumors involving their players swirled throughout the baseball world, particularly regarding closer Jhoan Duran and shortstop Carlos Correa.
Correa didn’t play on Wednesday after leaving Tuesday’s game with a migraine.
Boston put the game away further with a two-run homer by Duran. It was Duran’s second of the series and 11th of the year. Despite striking out and grounding into a double play in his first two at-bats, he finished a triple shy of the cycle. His double in the ninth led to the Red Sox’ ninth run. It came against Griffin Jax, another name that’s been floating around in trade rumors.
Jax gave up a hit to all three batters he faced. He walked off the mound as Clemens, a position player, took over on the mound. Jax appeared upset about the decision.
“I felt that I wanted the chance to get those outs, because those are my runs out there,” Jax told reporters after the game. “But, taking a step back from the situation, I understand the purpose of it. I can’t go out there and throw 30, 40 pitches just to selfishly get a couple more outs… I think it was just one of those moments of emotion and fire, and a little bit of selfishness on my part.”
Romy Gonzalez and Yoshida then played some Home Run Derby with back-to-back bombs. The three-run homer and solo shot secured the 13-1 laugher.
All three batters Jax faced scored in what could be his last appearance as a Twin. But the team isn’t thinking that way.
“He wants to stay in the game. I don’t blame him for wanting to stay in the game,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said after the loss. “But sometimes there are moves and decisions that we have to make in this game that are the best thing for the team, and honestly the best thing, I think, for Griff going forward and pitching for us next week when we’re gonna need him in games that are close and the situation really matters.”
Minnesota is off Thursday. The trade deadline is set for 6 p.m. ET across baseball. The Twins, who could have a different look to them, travel to Cleveland to play the Guardians at 6:10 p.m. CT on Friday.
