The Twins beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 7-5 on Sunday, which is all fine and well as far as winning goes. The problem is that the Twins lost the first two games in the series, so they needed to win to avoid being swept. The Twins took three of four games from the Cleveland Indians, split a four-game series with the Chicago White Sox and avoided the sweep at the hands of the Halos. The Twins finished 6-5 on this homestand and now meet Detroit on Tuesday.
Yes, the team finished one game over .500 on this homestand, but that’s not going to get you very far. And the way the AL Central is playing, it doesn’t appear the division is good enough to produce a wild card team this season, which means the only route to the playoffs is to win the division. Yet the Twins are still six games under .500 and 5.5 games back of the Indians.
Jake Odorizzi gets the ball Tuesday.
Extra innings…
-If you thought the Twins’ split of the four-game series with the White Sox was a missed opportunity, imagine how Red Sox fans feel. The Red Sox, arguably the best team in baseball, lost two of three games to the struggling White Sox at home, including a 5-2 loss Sunday.
-Starter Kyle Gibson is having one odd season. Gibson has made 13 starts this season. He has one win, four losses and eight no-decisions with an ERA of 3.45. He lost Saturday after he allowed two runs over seven innings. Final score: 2-1.
-Kelso, Wash. native Trevor May, who last pitched for the Twins in 2016 before he had Tommy John surgery, is finally off the disabled list and has been sent to Triple-A Rochester to work on his command, according to MLB.com.
-Outfielder Max Kepler is suddenly cold as ice. In the last seven games, he has four hits in his last 19 at bats for a batting average of .211. He’s now hitting .237 on the season.
-Logan Morrison hit his seventh home run on Sunday, but he’s still hitting below Mendoza at .193.