BOX SCORE

All of a sudden, the Cubs are barely holding onto their lead in the NL Central, as it stands at just 1.5 games after a 4-2 loss to the Twins on Wednesday night.

Another frustrating night for the offense meant the Cubs (54-38) dropped a second straight game and relinquished the series to the Twins (45-47).

Here are three things we learned from the matchup:

Dog days of summer

After going 6-for-31 (.193) as a team in Tuesday’s series opener, the Cubs still struggled to find any sort of offensive momentum on Wednesday. 

Through eight innings, Cubs hitters suffered a fate even worse: 4-for-31 (.129). 

The Cubs even managed an opportune situation in the fourth, loading the bases with one away — but they only cashed in twice. Both runs came on infield grounders (first Dansby Swanson’s single and then Nico Hoerner’s groundout), and they exited the inning still down a run without any real damage done to a dominating Twins pitching staff.

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Even in a game that stayed close for its entirety, both Minnesota’s starter David Festa and the bullpen wouldn’t budge as Cubs hitters couldn’t get anything going.

Horton’s lengthy battle

Cade Horton entered the game coming off his best outing of the season, in which he threw seven scoreless innings and struck out five Cleveland Guardians in his second career quality start at Wrigley Field last Thursday.

Although Horton got off to a shaky start Wednesday at Target Field in allowing two first-inning runs, the rookie settled in as best he could. 

He kept Twins hitters guessing, generating 19 swings-and-misses and notching five punch-outs for a second straight start. 

After Cubs hitters pulled within a run in the fourth inning, the Twins got crafty in the bottom half of the frame. With two outs, Minnesota right fielder Matt Wallner made a move toward second base and while Nico Hoerner and Michael Busch caught Wallner in a pickle, Royce Lewis stole a fourth run for the Twins before Wallner could be tagged out to end the inning. 

Another tough break came for Horton in the next frame when he made a good two-out payoff pitch that looked sure to get him out of the inning. But the pitch, a high fastball that skimmed the outside of the zone, was ruled a ball and instead was an inning-extending free pass for the Twins. Already at 94 pitches, Craig Counsell motioned for the bullpen, ending Horton’s night after 4.2 innings. 

Reliever Ryan Brasier got the third out with ease to preserve the two-run deficit and keep Horton’s earned run total at four. 

The righty now has a 4.45 ERA in his first 10 big-league starts. 

Better luck next time

The game had only just started when it became clear the ball wasn’t bouncing the Cubs’ way.

In the first inning, Horton looked to have a leadoff strikeout, but the umpires overturned the call and ruled Byron Buxton was hit by the pitch. The speedster then stole second and came around to score on a two-strike, two-out single to put the Cubs in a hole early. 

When the Cubs came up to bat in the second while down two runs, Pete Crow-Armstrong led off the inning with a deep, 103-mph fly ball to center field. Off the bat, it was carrying — but then held up at the warning track for Buxton to complete a very loud out. 

Per Statcast, the ball would have been a home run in eight of 30 MLB ballparks — including Wrigley Field. 

Two batters later, Dansby Swanson hit a 106.7-mph rocket of a line drive that had an expected batting average of .670 — but Twins shortstop Carlos Correa extended to make the grab. 

Thursday afternoon’s series finale will feature Colin Rea (6-3, 4.13 ERA) on the mound for the Cubs while Twins righty Chris Paddack (3-7, 4.64 ERA) will start for the hosts. 

Coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. CT on Marquee Sports Network.