A handful of leftovers from the Twins' 13th loss in June, surpassing April's total:
— Monday is an important day for the Twins, who could use a little relief from the high-quality pitching they have been seeing lately. Minnesota had to face the Cardinals' great staff, including John Lackey, Michael Wacha and Carlos Martinez early in the week, then Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta this weekend. Jeff Samardzija and Chris Sale — the latter of whom has struck out at least 10 in six straight starts — are on the menu this week, too. So the Twins really need to beat up on John Danks, whom their current roster has hit .337 against, on Monday.
— It's been a rough month for Aaron Thompson, who earned some late-inning responsibility by posting a 2.57 ERA in April. He was still all right in May, when his ERA rose to 4.66, but Sunday's four-batter, four-run ordeal inflated the left-hander's June ERA to 14.53. ERAs can be misleading for relievers, because of the small sample size, but Thompson's strikeout rate has plummeted, too. He has allowed runs in four of his nine appearances this month, after doing so just six times in his first 25 appearances. Sunday's outing, of course, wasn't all his fault — only two runs scored while he was in the game. Michael Tonkin relieved, and allowed Dexter Fowler's grand slam, including two more runs charged to Thompson.
— Cubs fans might not stand out in a crowd the way red-clad Cardinals fans do, but they were here in force this weekend. The three-game series drew 117,156, including Sunday's 40,273-ticket sellout, and the Cubs fans were plenty noisy, particularly after Dexter Fowler's grand slam ended the Twins' hopes of a comeback. The three-game total was the largest in four years, since 118,227 came to Target Field on June 26-28, 2011, for a series against the Tigers.
