During the 2020 season, the Twins, like every team in the majors, played most of their games against divisional rivals. The club was good enough to win a second straight AL Central title, but there was some scuttlebutt: Would the Twins have won the central if they had played outside the division last season? That... Continue Reading »

The Twins dropped the opener of their four-game series with the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, a series that was postponed on Monday after the shooting death of Daunte Wright over the weekend in Brooklyn Center, outside Minneapolis. Perhaps Tuesday’s game should have been canceled as well. The game-time temperature was 33 degrees and it... Continue Reading »

A six-run lead slowly unraveled and finally fell apart for the Twins on Sunday after reliever Alex Colome served up a three-run home run, turning a 6-5 Twins lead into an 8-6 Seattle Mariners win. Watching the game on TV, it appeared that no matter what Colome threw, Mariner hitters were going to put the... Continue Reading »

The Twins’ 10-2 blowout victory over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday produced a number of storylines, but the one that interested me was the play of shortstop Andrelton Simmons, whose contributions were both obvious and subtle yet equally important. At the plate, Simmons doubled twice and singled in five at bats. I like his attacking... Continue Reading »

The Twins appear to have put March and a lack of hitting behind them after they banged out 11 hits on Sunday in an 8-2 win and series win over the Milwaukee Brewers. Luis Arraez had a 3-for-3 day at the top of the order, plus Byron Buxton doubled, Mitch Garver and Miguel Sano homered,... Continue Reading »

Four Twins pitchers combined to one-hit the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday, including starter Jose Berrios, who not only no-hit the Brewers for six innings, he also had pitched a perfect game to that point. He struck out 12 over six innings with no hits and no walks and yet Berrios was lifted after 84 pitches.... Continue Reading »

Twins outfielder, Max Kepler, singled, doubled and tripled in Game 1 of the regular season on Thursday, reminding Twins fans everywhere (OK, me) that spring training results are pretty much meaningless. Kepler hit all of .070 during spring training, but it sure didn’t seem to matter on Thursday. Also bucking the trend was, Byron Buxton,... Continue Reading »

Free agent pitcher and ex-Yankee, J.A. Happ, saw more spring training action on Friday, but perhaps he wishes he hadn’t after he was roughed up in a 7-6 loss to the Atlanta Braves. The Twins are 1-6 in exhibition play against the Braves. Happ followed Kenta Maeda, who was his usual sterling self. Maeda scattered... Continue Reading »

The starting pitching has been strong, the bullpen has shown improvement, but this Twins team is not hitting, and that was underscored Tuesday after they were shut out by the Pittsburgh Pirates 1-0. The Twins had a grand total of three hits. After that loss, I crunched some numbers that showed the Twins have scored... Continue Reading »