The Twins were drubbed 6-1, nearly taking in their first shutout loss of 2026, but regardless marking their eighth loss in the last nine ballgames, and exacerbating the absolute morale tailspin that Minnesota has found themselves in during the back half of April.

A bizarre first inning opened with a ghost-timeout that required something akin to a crew chief review, and ended with an outfield assist at home plate from Austin Martin, the fourth of his career.

From there, an early pitching duel developed, with an embattled Shane McClanahan trading zeroes with a velocity-challenged Bailey Ober (Tampa Bay’s starter logged a changeup that came in hotter than Bailey’s hardest fastball of the day.) A scoreless tie held for an hour and change, until a two-out solo shot from Jake Fraley, 401 feet into right field, cracked open a 2-0 lead for Tampa Bay.

But while the Rays had eventually broken through, the Twins would not produce an offensive highlight today. (Their lone run came with two outs in the ninth, when a snapped-bat single from Royce Lewis would bring in Luke Keaschall from second base.) And even the homer would not tarnish much of starter Bailey Ober’s linescore; he went six innings and gave up only three hits. While the swing-and-miss stuff was not present, Ober drove his ERA down below 4.00 in his first loss of the season.

McClanahan’s outing was quicker, but better. In five innings, he too allowed just three hits, but kept Minnesota off the board and struck out seven to only two walks.

The loss was cemented by another poor bullpen performance, which is becoming as dependable (and predictably dependable) of a theme as you might imagine. Taylor Rogers couldn’t get an out in the seventh, allowing an RBI triple off the bat of Ben Williamson, as well as a run-scoring single to Nick Fortes; he was also charged for the run when a sac fly from Richie Palacios scored known thorn Cedric Mullins.

Tampa Bay tacked on a sixth and final run off Garrett Acton (a Ben Williamson RBI double.)

The Twins have now dropped eight of nine, effectively erasing their astonishing stretch where they went 8-1 in nine games against numerous Cy Young-caliber starters and potential playoff hopefuls. The Rays win also delivers the first win at Tropicana Field for McClanahan in, per the telecast, over a thousand days. The Twins will attempt to avoid another sweep tomorrow afternoon.