The Twins have used six games against the Chicago White Sox this season to get better, if not well.

Eight games under .500 when Chicago came to town this week, the Twins won the first two of the series. But with the chance for a series sweep on Thursday at Target Field, Minnesota couldn’t get much of anything going offensively in a wet, and short, 3-0 loss.

The game was played in an incessant rain that required the grounds crew to give the infield some extreme makeovers between innings before umpire crew chief Laz Diaz called for the tarp after seven innings. He officially called it an hour later.

By that time, virtually no one was left of an announced crowd of 12,414.

“The field was just unplayable. There was just no way around it,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “The grounds crew, I don’t know how many bags of Turface they threw down, and they worked on it during the game. But the field was, I mean, it was muddy and probably dangerous to play.”

The Twins have been shut out three times, twice by the White Sox (6-19). They beat Minnesota 9-0 in Chicago on March 31.

Lenyn Sosa and Michael Vargas his solo home runs for the White Sox, and Joshua Palacios drew a bases-loaded walk to drive in Chicago’s other run.

White Sox rookie Shane Smith (1-1), making his fifth major league start, held the Twins scoreless for five innings, allowing four hits and a walk while fanning seven.

“Their pitcher is pretty solid, the one today,” Twins shortstop Carlos Correa said. “He’s not a mop-up guy by any means. His stuff is really good. He executed a lot of pitches. Tomorrow we get to go back (and hit) again like we did the last two days. Today, the kid did a good job of pitching.”

Chris Paddack (0-3) took the loss, allowing two runs on a solo home run by Sosa in the second inning and walking in another with two out in the fourth. He pitched five innings, allowing five hits and four walks. He struck out five.

“That was probably the hardest I’ve battled throughout my career out there today,” said Paddack, who has been sidelined by elbow and forearm issues for the better part of three seasons before starting with the big league club this spring.

“I love where my stuff’s at,” he said. “It’s a long season. I’m getting ready for my next outing. But this is one I’m going to talk about this offseason, and what I mean by that is I battled.”

Vargas started the sixth with a home run, his first of the season, against reliever Jorge Alcala.

With the rain falling harder, the Twins put runners on first and second with no outs in the sixth inning against reliever Jordan Leasure. The right-hander walked Byron Buxton to start the inning, then gave up a sharp single to Brooks Lee, bringing Trevor Larnach to the plate.

Larnach quickly worked the count to 3-0 but wound up striking out. Next batter Carlos Correa also worked a quick 3-0 count against Leasure, but he was called out looking on an outside fastball out of the zone for the second out. Ty France hit a broken-bat liner to second baseman Sosa to end the inning.