After a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, the Twins have now made it five wins in a row after they won Game 1 of their three-game series with the Kansas City Royals on Monday.
The Twins are now 40-48 on the season, while the Royals, winless in their last 10 games, have fallen to 40 games under .500, just like the Orioles.
So, are the Twins getting better or are they just playing lousy teams? The latter clearly applies, but I hope some of the former does as well. The Twins seem to be getting more production out of the entire lineup, not just Eddie Rosario and Eduardo Escobar, and the bottom of the order has stepped it up of late.
On Monday, though, Joe Mauer, Rosario, Brian Dozier and Escobar had eight of the Twins’ 11 hits. The Twins fell behind early, then rallied for three runs late in the game. That also made a winner out of Jose Berrios, who struck out eight over seven innings. Berrios has been named to the American League All-Star team. He is 9-7 with a 3.41 ERA and 122 strikeouts in 121.1 innings pitched.
Trevor Hildenberger worked a scoreless inning and Fernando Rodney closed out the win for his 20th save before the all-star break. It appears that Rodney is on his way to having a 40-save season. Not bad for a 41-year-old closer.
Aaron Slegers gets the ball Tuesday.
Extra innings…
-If the Twins keep winning, does that mean the team will put the rumored fire sale on hold? Here’s what starter Jake Odorizzi had to say, according to the Pioneer Press.
“If we keep winning up until the break, I would say certainly,” Twins right-hander Odorizzi (4-6) said after tossing six scoreless innings. “We have to keep doing it. That’s basically it. We’re to the point where just winning series isn’t going to do much for us. If we’re trying to keep this together, we have to have sweeps.”
-The Twins remain in second place, 8.5 games back of the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central. Can the Twins make a move and dethrone the Tribe? The Twins are 18-13 vs. teams in their division and will play 21 games against divisional foes in August.