It’s been a couple of months since the Twins have completed a sweep. They will have to wait a little bit longer after the Chicago Cubs got the best of them in Thursday’s series finale.

Though the Twins managed to hold a potent lineup in check over the past couple of games, they suffered an 8-1 loss on Thursday at Target Field as the Cubs finally woke up at the plate.

It looked like batting practice for the Cubs with the way they were consistently barreling up the ball.

As he reflected on the loss, however, manager Rocco Baldelli tried to look at the bigger picture. Not only did the Twins earn a pair of wins over the Cubs (55-38), they did so in a way that could serve as a compass moving forward.

“As a whole I was very pleased with the way we competed in this series,” Baldelli said. “We were able to pull a couple of games off and win a couple of ball games against them. Now we can move on to the next series. I won’t get too caught up with what happened in the game today.”

The struggles for the Twins (45-48) in the game started and stopped with pitcher Chris Paddack, as he allowed six runs while grinding his way through five innings.“I thought they did a really good job of having an overall game plan against me,” said Paddack, whose earned-run average ballooned to 4.95 on the season. “I kept battling and I kept my head up. I tried to keep us in the game as long as I could. Just came up a little short today.”

The damage was done by the time he handed the ball over to the bullpen.

“He kept going at them,” Baldelli said. “He threw strikes. It’s not like he was out there walking people. There were some tough at bats out there.”

The biggest haymakers from the Cubs came courtesy of star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong.

After entering the game 0 for 8 in the series and looking visibly frustrated in the process, Crow-Armstrong snapped out of his mini slump by going 3 for 4 with a pair of home runs, a trio of runs batted in and a hustle double for good measure.

On the other end, the Twins couldn’t solve pitcher Colin Rea, with their only offense coming via a solo home run from first baseman Kody Clemens with the score already out of hand in the fifth frame.

As frustrated as he was with his performance, Paddack tried his best to separate the forest from the trees in the immediate aftermath.

“I guess the positive is that we won the series against a really good team,” Paddack said. “We have to remember that as we close this gap.”

The next chance for the Twins to complete a sweep will come this weekend with the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates coming to town.