CHICAGO -- After series wins against the American League Central-leading Indians and the Red Sox, it seemed the Twins were finally headed in the right direction.
But they've followed that up with back-to-back series losses against the Rangers and White Sox, as the offense fell flat in a 6-1 loss on Wednesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field. It was Minnesota's fifth loss in its last six games, including two in a row against Chicago, moving the Twins a season-worst 8 1/2 games behind the Indians in the AL Central.
"I feel like we're beating the teams that are probably the best teams on our schedule and playing them really well, and just not coming up with the hits and the pitching performances when we need to against guys like these," Twins right-hander Kyle Gibson said. "Not that Chicago's a bad team. They're a big league team. I feel like, in general, we normally play them pretty well, and even here we normally play pretty well. We just have to be better in these situations."
Gibson turned in a rare subpar outing, allowing five runs on a season-high 11 hits and a walk over 6 1/3 innings to fall to 2-6 with a 3.48 ERA. It was tied for the most runs Gibson has allowed this season, and his most since May 18.

The White Sox scored three runs in the fourth after Jose Abreu and Daniel Palka opened with back-to-back singles. Leury Garcia ripped an RBI double to right before Tim Anderson added an RBI single and Omar Narvaez plated a run with a groundout.
"I went back and looked at some of the hits I gave up," Gibson said. "I don't know if I just picked the wrong pitch at the wrong time, or what. I executed quite a few pitches there, and they found holes."
Abreu connected on a solo homer in the fifth before the White Sox tacked on another run in the sixth on a two-out RBI single from Charlie Tilson. Avisail Garcia padded the lead with a solo shot off reliever Thomas Pressly in the eighth.
White Sox right-hander James Shields entered with an AL-leading nine losses and a 4.59 ERA, but he threw seven scoreless frames, scattering four hits and two walks and striking out five.

"Shields, he just got us to expand," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "The lefties had the tough time laying off of the slider, especially down and in. We didn't hit too many balls hard."
The Twins loaded the bases with two outs in the second, but Bobby Wilson grounded out to third. They also had runners at first and third with two outs in a wild sixth inning that saw both Molitor and third-base coach Gene Glynn ejected, but Max Kepler struck out looking to end the scoring threat.
Minnesota didn't score until Ehire Adrianza connected on an RBI single with two outs in the ninth, as he completed a 4-for-4 night.

"Ehire had a good night, obviously," Molitor said. "Just not many opportunities."
MOLITOR, GLYNN EJECTED
Glynn and Molitor were both ejected with two outs in the sixth. Glynn was tossed by third-base umpire Gerry Davis for arguing about what the Twins believed was a balk the previous inning with Adrianza at first. Glynn didn't appreciate that Davis told him he didn't think Glynn understood the balk rules regarding stopping.
"When I asked him about Shields not stopping, he had come back with, I thought, an insulting, sarcastic line to me," Glynn said. "That ended, I went in the dugout, nothing said. I came out, nothing said, which I wasn't going to say anything. And then, when [Eddie] Rosario got on third, I just walked up to him and Gerry ended up there, and I told him, 'I thought that was a [expletive] thing you said to me last inning.'"

After Glynn's ejection, Shields faked a pick-off move to first and threw to third, which was initially ruled a run-scoring balk. But after the umpires huddled at the request of White Sox manager Rick Renteria, the balk was overturned, which caused Molitor to come out and argue, getting ejected for the first time this season and for the sixth time in his managerial career.
"I wasn't particularly happy to hear that they all said that they saw that he had properly disengaged with the rubber, because I don't believe that they did," Molitor said. "It was fast. I looked at replay, and I couldn't even tell if he did. It was just a weird sequence."

SOUND SMART
The Twins are 16-21 against teams with a .500 or worse record this season, while going 18-21 against teams above .500.
HE SAID IT
"In Gene's case, he had wanted a balk the inning before. I explained to him it was not a balk. He said it was a balk. I explained to him it was not a balk, told him I wasn't sure he knew the definition of what a balk was for a stop. Told him if his hands stop before his leg comes up, it's not a balk. The next half-inning, he came out, brought it up again, I told him that was enough, he continued and I ejected him." -- Davis, on Glynn's ejection
UP NEXT
Right-hander Jake Odorizzi (3-5, 4.97 ERA) will look to bounce back from one of the worst starts of his career when he takes the mound in the series finale against the White Sox on Thursday at 1:10 p.m. CT at Guaranteed Rate Field. Odorizzi went 1 2/3 innings, the second-shortest outing of his career, against the Rangers on Saturday, allowing six runs on six hits. He has a 9.74 ERA over his last five starts. The White Sox will start right-hander Lucas Giolito (5-7, 7.01).