CHICAGO — Zebby Matthews showed Alex Bregman a little bit of everything during their battle in the third inning Sunday. Their duel finally ended when the ninth pitch was deemed ball four and confirmed after catcher Ryan Jeffers challenged the pitch call.
Matthews then worked through a 10-pitch plate appearance with Ian Happ, the next batter, as the left fielder fouled off four pitches before finally taking a walk.
That set the stage for Nico Hoerner, who lined a ball towards Luke Keaschall in center field. The ball bounced up and Keaschall, playing in his eighth major league game at the position, couldn’t kept it in front of him. It bounced past him and three runs scored.
It was just one of those days for the Twins, who lost 10-1 to the Chicago Cubs in the series finale at Wrigley Field on Sunday, a loss they hope they can quickly put behind them with a big four-game series in Cleveland starting Monday.
Not much went right Sunday with the offense shut out by Shota Imanaga for seven innings, the defensive misplay in center field and an error on Brooks Lee later in the game, and Matthews getting knocked around.
The Keaschall misplay came with the Twins down three runs, turning the three-run deficit into a six-run hole.
“I wanted to catch it,” Keaschall said. “I got a good read on it, but then it started to die a little bit. I tried to let up, got caught in between and just tried to get my body in front of it. It bounced to my left and got by me.”
But while that play not being made was costly, Matthews and the Twins (49-51) were often one pitch away from getting out of trouble. Matthews was ahead in the count against most of the hitters he faced, but he had trouble putting hitters away.
He pitched into the fourth inning but was pulled after the first four batters reached base.
“The two-strike pitches, I either missed too far or left them over the plate, and they didn’t miss them,” Matthews said.
The Cubs (56-43) scored a pair of runs in the first on Bregman’s home run, one more in the second, four in the third and three in the fourth. All told, they scored 10 (eight earned) against Matthews, who gave up nine hits and walked three.
The Cubs ratcheted up his pitch count quickly. During the three plate appearances that ended with walks, Matthews threw 27 pitches as the Cubs kept fouling off his offerings.
“They’re a really good offense. I think good offenses make pitchers work a lot more,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “We were ahead in a lot of counts, and they make you work, they make you earn it. They make you come to the middle and force mistakes, and that’s what they did (Sunday).”
The loss, which came after the teams split the first two games of the series, marked the Twins’ first series loss in nearly a month.
“This game got out of hand early and stayed out of hand, and we weren’t able to do anything. So we just flush it and move on to the next series,” manager Derek Shelton said.
