ST. LOUIS -- Barely halfway through June, the Twins must want this godforsaken month to end as soon as possible.
Tuesday's disappointment came in the form of a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at soggy Busch Stadium.
In an afternoon game marred by two rain delays totaling 92 minutes, the Twins fell by an identical score to the one from the night before.
"A couple of fairly well-played games here," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "St. Louis, we know, has a knack for finding a way to win those kinds of games."
The Cardinals, improving baseball's best record to 43-21, showed repeatedly how fundamentally sound they are in all facets. The Twins, falling to 4-11 for the month, had too many small breakdowns, mostly at the plate, and that added up to more frustration when facing the sport's best.
St. Louis Cardinals' Yadier Molina, left, safely slides past the tag attempt from Minnesota Twins catcher Kurt Suzuki to score a run on a sacrifice fly hit by Randal Grichuk during the second inning Tuesday, June 16, 2015, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Scott Kane)
Against teams with losing records entering Tuesday, the Twins were a sterling 22-11. That computes to a winning percentage of .667.
Against winning teams, however, they have struggled to a 12-19 mark (.387). That includes a combined 5-13 mark against their two main division rivals, the Kansas City Royals (3-6) and Detroit Tigers (2-7).
The Twins also dropped a three-game series over the weekend on the road against the surging Texas Rangers at the start of this 1-4 road trip.
"It's more winning and losing for me, not so much who we're playing against," Molitor said. "If you look around, there's a lot of parity. There are not a lot of teams that are tearing it up other than (the Cardinals)."
Tuesday marked the 10th time in 15 June games the Twins had been held to two runs or fewer.
"We're being competitive still and not playing our best baseball," Twins right-hander Kyle Gibson said. "At some point the hard line drives aren't going to be right at people, the hard ground b***s are going to go through and before you know it we're going to rattle off five or six in a row."
Trevor Plouffe put the Twins on top with a two-out single off Cardinals starter Michael Wacha (9-2) in the first. That scored Brian Dozier, who singled and stole second.
Gibson (4-5) worked the first six innings and turned in his first quality start since May 24 at Chicago, but he wasn't able to make two key pitches when he needed them.
Yadier Molina opened the second with a double, moved up on a groundout and scored just ahead of Shane Robinson's throw on Randal Grichuk's sacrifice fly to left. Gibson got ahead of Grichuk with two quick strikes and was determined to keep the ball out of the air, but Grichuk delivered the required situational play.
Mark Reynolds added a two-run single with two outs in the third to make it 3-1. Jhonny Peralta moved up both runners just before Reynolds' hit with a productive groundout to first.
"They do execute," Molitor said. "They're pesky that way. They take advantage of run-scoring opportunities when they get them. We've had a couple of those where as of late we haven't been able to move guys up."
Gibson's two-out single in the fifth ended a run of 12 straight Twins set down by Wacha, who was pulled after 86 pitches when the second rain delay hit in the seventh. Kurt Suzuki greeted reliever Seth Maness with a run-scoring double to pull the Twins within one.
It was Suzuki's first extra-base hit since May 26, ending a drought of 54 at-bats.
A wild pitch moved Suzuki to third with one out, but pinch-hitters Eddie Rosario and Kennys Vargas failed to get the ball out of the infield.
Minnesota Twins' Byron Buxton hits for a single during the eighth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday, June 16, 2015, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Scott Kane)
Rookie Byron Buxton started the eighth with an infield single, his second hit in 10 big-league at-bats. Trying to move into scoring position, he was caught trying to steal second by perennial Gold Glove catcher Molina.
Torii Hunter singled to center on the next pitch, which likely would have tied the score had Buxton gotten a better jump.
Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal (arm tightness) was unavailable again, but left-hander Kevin Siegrist was able to record the save for a second straight day. Eduardo Nunez doubled off the base of the wall with one out in the ninth, but the Twins could not advance him.
Follow Mike Berardino at Twitter.com/MikeBerardino.
Source: http://www.twincities.com/twins/ci_28325309/cardinals-3-twins-2-same-night-before
