MINNEAPOLIS – The Minnesota Twins beat the Red Sox 3-1 on Saturday to extend their winning streak to 12 games, their longest since 1980.

Before the game, Red Sox manager Alex Cora admitted it was getting difficult to sustain multiple starting pitchers on the injured list. “They’re not fun,” he said of the too-frequent bullpen games.

But while he may be counting the days until he gets Nick Pivetta and Brayan Bello back from the injured list, the bullpen hasn’t been the problem.

The bats have gone ice cold.

Minnesota entered the day worse than American League average in hits, home runs and strikeouts, but they didn’t have to be the best, they just had to be better than a Boston lineup that has stopped capitalizing on opportunities.

Since their 6-2 victory over the Giants at Fenway on May 1, the Red Sox have scored four runs and stranded 19 runners over a three-game losing streak. They’re homer-less in their last six games, their longest stretch since April 2022, and they’re 7-10 when they don’t homer. After striking out 13 times in Friday night’s series opener, they racked up a dozen on Saturday. They already ranked third in the American League in leaving men on base, then tacked on another eight.

“We didn’t do much offensively,” Cora said, a too-frequent a refrain of late.

The game got off to a promising start when the Sox took a 1-0 lead against Twins starter Pablo López in the top of the first. (They’re 16-7 when scoring first.) Tyler O’Neill and Wilyer Abreu, who’d each gone 0-for-4 with three strikeouts on Friday night, doubled and singled for an immediate advantage.

But much like Friday night, when Chris Paddack escaped damage in the first and settled in for a long start, López was able to rebound from a 25-pitch first inning and three consecutive two-out hits, and after stranding two in the first and the Twins tying the game in the bottom of the frame, Boston never scored again. López pitched six innings, striking out eight and holding the visitors to one run on five hits and a walk.

“He used his fastball just like Paddack did yesterday,” Cora said. “We have put some good at-bats, sometimes we put pressure, but not enough.”

Mid-afternoon, the skies began to clear and the sun came out. The Boston bats didn’t. They squandered Dom Smith’s two-out single in the fourth and David Hamilton’s leadoff single and stolen base in the fifth. Through five, they were out-hitting the Twins, but trailed 2-1 because they were 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position. O’Neill and Abreu struck out a combined five times over the remainder of the game.

“I think the Twins do a really, really good job of mixing off-speed really early and then kind of expanding with the fastball and getting you to chase,” said Rob Refsnyder, who played for Minnesota in ’21. “They’re living on the black with the off-speed and fastballs up… just tough looks, honestly. Tough looks.”

López had been struggling with his breaking pitches in recent starts, and entered the contest in the sixth MLB Percentile in Breaking Run Value and 20th percentile in Offspeed Run Value. But the Red Sox were befuddled by his fastball, swinging 23 times and whiffing 11. He’d also been struggling with men on base, but they let him off the hook in that regard, going 1-2-3 in the second, third, and sixth frames and stranded a runner apiece in the fourth and fifth. Minnesota’s bullpen had little trouble the rest of the way.

Even with several questionable calls by home-plate umpire Lance Barksdale – Greg Weissert had to throw extra pitches when multiple strikes were ruled balls, and Rafael Devers called time during an at-bat and stared the ump down after a particularly egregious judgement – the Boston bullpen was able to avoid major damage.

Brennan Bernardino wasn’t perfect as the game’s opener, giving up an unearned run to re-tie the game in the bottom of the first, and Cam Booser gave up a solo homer to Max Kepler in the bottom of the fourth. Justin Slaten wasn’t his usual shutdown self in the bottom of the sixth; he allowed a leadoff single to Willi Castro, who promptly advanced to third on a pair of wild pitches and scored easily on Carlos Correa’s sacrifice fly to deep center – which would’ve been a homer at Fenway – to make it 3-1.

Slaten was able to get out of the inning with the game seemingly within reach. But even though the Twins were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, they did more than enough.

Boston’s biggest chance came in the top of the seventh. They put runners on first and third with two outs in the seventh, and when the Twins sent southpaw Steven Okert to the mound, Cora went for broke, subbing out leadoff man Jarren Duran for Refsnyder. The veteran utility-man, who feasts on lefties, worked an eight-pitch at-bat for a walk to load the bases for Devers.

But once again, it was all for naught. Devers worked a full count, then struck out swinging on a slider to strand a full diamond. He slammed his bat, dropped his helmet, and walked slowly into the infield grass, hands clasped behind his head.

“This is part of the game,” he said. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Today I lost.”

Despite watching the Red Sox fail to capitalize in their first 16 innings of play over the series, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli wanted to leave no doubt, and sent his closer, Jhoan Duran, to the mound for the eighth. Duran got O’Neill to strike out looking – with a questionable called strike – and worked around an Abreu single to again leave the Sox with nothing.

Cole Sands closed out the game, getting the Red Sox to go in order for the fourth time in nine innings. The Twins had gone 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, but the little they’d done was more than enough.

Despite his team’s third straight low-scoring loss and the Twins officially taking the series, Cora was upbeat and optimistic.

“We’re gonna pitch, and if we continue to do that, we know the offense is gonna wake up, we’re gonna score runs,” he said. “Overall, we’re throwing the ball well, and we played some good defense.”

Still, he didn’t hide the fact that he was ready to stop needing regular bullpen games: “Hopefully, it’s the last one.”