Twins return from All-Star break with 6-4 loss to lowly Colorado Rockies

DENVER — The second half of the 2025 season began for the Twins in exactly the same way as the first half ended: With a loss to a last-place National League team.

And this one felt worse.

Byron Buxton homered and singled twice, Ryan Jeffers added a double and three singles and Willi Castro cracked one of the longest home runs of his career, scoring both of those teammates in front of him. But none of it mattered, because the first four Rockies to bat against Chris Paddack on Friday whizzed extra-base hits into Coors Field’s extra-large outfield — or beyond — and Colorado clung to that lead for a 6-4 victory.

“We’re not looking at the Rockies’ record in any way,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of the 23-74 Rockies, owners of the fewest wins at this point of a season in more than a century. “We’re trying to play good baseball and make good baseball plays. We obviously have to do a better job [Saturday].”

The loss was the Twins’ 50th, leaving them 11 1/2 games behind the Tigers in the AL Central, and five games behind Seattle for the final wild-card playoff spot.

Only 13 days remain before the trade deadline, which could could mean saying farewell to Paddack, Castro and a few other expiring contracts on the Twins’ roster.

“Rumors are rumors. You hear it all season,” said Paddack, who started a Twins’ loss for the 11th time in his past 13 appearances. “We’ve just got to put some things on the offensive side, as well as the pitching side and when it clicks, we’ve shown what we’re capable of doing.”

Unfortunately, that goes both ways.

Paddack surrendered back-to-back doubles to Tyler Freeman and Mickey Moniak to open his outing, then a triple to Jordan Beck, whose long fly ball barely carried over Buxton’s glove as he tried to make a diving catch. Ryan McMahon completed the nightmarish beginning by blasting a curveball from Paddack into the bullpens in right field.

“When you’re standing out there, when the ball is hit really deep, you can tell” how spacious the outfield is at Coors Field, Castro said. “For the hitters, it’s one of the best parks to hit because there is a lot of room, so there’s more chance to get hits.”

BOXSCORE: Rockies 6, Twins 4

MLB standings

Which makes it not a great place to pitch.

“Yeah, you know, that first-inning crooked number, I felt like they came out and they were on time for my fastball,” Paddack said. “Normally, kind of that first time through the lineup, I try and establish the fastball and then we kind of make adjustments as needed. They came out and the next thing I know, [I’m behind] pretty quick.”

Paddack also allowed a home run to Beck in the second inning, a 448-footer to straightaway center field, but actually settled down from there, allowing no more runs over the final three innings.

It gave the Twins a chance to rally, and Baldelli liked their chances against Colorado lefthander Kyle Freeland. But four times in the first four innings, the Twins hit a ball hard, but directly at a Rockies fielder, two of them with a pair of Twins on base. Those fall, and it’s a different game, Baldelli noted.

“There are a bunch of scenarios in the first few innings where we’re standing there with three runs on the board and we’re right there in the game. That’s how we swung the bats,” Balddlli said. “We got some things going and then we line out. It happens.”

Freeland improved to 2-10 on the season, mostly by holding the Twins hitless (0-7) with runners in scoring position while he was in the game. The Twins scored only once against Freeland, that coming on Buxton’s 22nd home run of the season, a solo shot.

In an odd symmetry, Freeland also improved to 2-0 in two lifetime starts against the Twins, the other coming in 2017 when he allowed five hits in six innings, identical to his numbers Friday — including a Buxton home run in both games. Buxton is the lone remaining Twin from that game, and Freeland is the only Rockies player.

The Twins pulled within two runs when Castro followed Buxton and Jeffers singles by crushing a 439-foot home run into a pine tree in center field off reliever Jake Bird, his 10th homer of the season and the third-longest of his career.

But it wasn’t enough.

“I’m sure my phone is full of all kinds of fun DMs [saying] that’s the worst team in baseball. It’s not. It’s still a big-league lineup,” Paddack said. “They have some young guys in that lineup that can swing it. That’s going to be a fun team to watch in the next couple years when they put it all together.”