Rays 11, Twins 4: The struggle is real.

After a bruising loss to the Royals on Sunday, the Twins at least had Jose Berrios on the bump for Monday’s game at Tampa.

So that didn’t work.

Tampa’s pitching held the Twins in check, Berrios got tired late, and the bullpen got knocked around as Minnesota lost their third game in four days, 10-3. They now lead the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim California by a mere .5 games for the second wild card.

Minnesota opened the scoring on a Max Kepler RBI single in the 2nd, but Tampa responded with a solo Corey Dickerson dong in the bottom of the frame. An Evan Longoria single made it 2-1 Tampa in the 3rd, and that was how it stayed until the 6th.

While the Twins couldn’t muster much against the Rays’ Alex Cobb, Tampa broke through versus Berrios in the aforementioned 6th, going single/walk/double to chase the latter. Ryan Pressly and Buddy Boshers combined to get three outs and allow three runs, which was suboptimal. Berrios finished with 5 ER in 5 IP. The 7 K/1 BB ratio is pretty to look at, I’ll admit.

After a solo Logan Morrison dong in the 7th made the score 7-1, the Twins narrowed it to 7-3 in the 8th on a sloppy 2-run dong from Brian Dozier (his 28th, tying him for the team lead with Miguel Sano). Glen Perkins and Tyler Duffey got knocked around for four more runs in the bottom of the frame, effectively putting the game out of reach.

Studs: Most of the Rays.

Duds: All non-Dozier Twins, except Byron Buxton.

ROBOT ROLL CALL:

Enjoy the rest of your week, everybody.