Twins make unfortunate piece of team history in shutout loss vs. Marlins

The Twins' July began the same way their June ended: with just two hits and no runs.

After being shut out by Tarik Skubal and the Tigers in front of a national audience on Sunday, the Twins were blanked in another two-hit shutout by Edward Cabrera and the Marlins in Tuesday night's 2-0 series-opening loss in Miami. It was the eighth consecutive win for the Marlins (38-45) and the third straight loss for the Twins (40-45), who are just 6-18 since June 4.

Cabrera had the Twins guessing all night. He struck out six batters over seven scoreless innings, allowing just the two hits and one walk. Incredibly, this was the first time a Marlins starting pitcher has completed seven innings in a game all season.

It's also the first time in Twins history (since 1961) they've had two hits or fewer in consecutive games. The Twins have two previous two-game spans with four or fewer hits, but both involved a no-hitter in one of the contests.

This was another night the Twins' offense would like to have back. Although Cabrera has nasty stuff, he isn't nearly the caliber of pitcher that Skubal is. Cabrera came into this game with a 3.78 ERA on the season and a 4.22 career mark. Only walking once against a pitcher with nearly five walks per nine innings in his career was less than ideal for Minnesota.

Two Twins players reached second base all night. None even got to third. In the third inning, Royce Lewis hit a one-out double in his first at-bat since coming off the injured list, but he went no further due to a pair of Cabrera strikeouts. In the seventh inning, the Twins put two runners on, but Brooks Lee struck out on three pitches, capped by a filthy Cabrera changeup.

Anthony Bender and former Twins reliever Ronny Henriquez locked down the win for Miami.

This was a proper pitcher's duel, as Twins ace Joe Ryan was excellent in his own right. Ryan allowed one run on five hits over seven innings, striking out four. The one big blow against him was a solo home run by Kyle Stowers in the second inning. Ryan buckled down after that and kept his team in the game, lowering his season ERA to 2.75.

Kyle Stowers opens the scoring with a solo blast! pic.twitter.com/vXJwceaI5V
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 1, 2025

The Marlins added an insurance run off of Louis Varland in the bottom of the eighth inning thanks to a triple from Jesus Sanchez and an RBI single by Nick Fortes. It was the first earned run Varland has allowed since May 27, snapping a stretch of 11 straight scoreless outings.

This was just the 12th game all year the Twins have had Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa, and Lewis in the lineup together. They were 8-3 in those games before Tuesday night. But Buxton went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, all looking, and Correa (like almost everyone else in the Twins' lineup) was hitless as well.

Game two of the series pits Simeon Woods Richardson against Marlins starter Janson Junk on Wednesday evening.