The Twins tied a team record for futility after they suffered their 15th walk-off loss of the season to the Oakland A’s on Saturday. That’s back-to-back walk-off losses to the A’s, who beat them 7-6 on Friday and 3-2 on Saturday. There are eight games left in the season, which means the Twins have to do their best to avoid tying the major league record for walk-off losses at 16, or setting a new record.
Once again the Twins battled the A’s for nine innings until Twins reliever Trevor Hildenberger uncorked a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth to allow the winning run to score.
“It’s tough,” Twins manager Paul Molitor told MLB.com. “I like that we’re fighting. I like that we’re playing tough. I think guys are grinding as well as can be considered as far as the state of the season. And a lot of young players are learning on the fly and it’s probably a good experience for them. It’s disappointing we can’t find a way to win those close games on the road.”
I predicted that the Twins would win only one game in this series, so if that’s going to happen it needs to happen Sunday. Kyle Gibson gets the ball.
Extra innings…
-Has Molitor got something against pitcher Chase De Jong? Once again De Jong got the quick hook after pitching four-plus innings. He allowed five hits and two runs, but was lifted after 58 pitches. Then the team used six relievers, including Hildenberger.
-The Twins banged out seven hits in the loss, including three from Internet sensation and stat geek favorite, Willians Astudillo. He continues to live up to the no-walk, no-strikeout hype. He did neither on Saturday and yet he had three hits.
Willians Astudillo is 3-for-4 tonight and is hitting .338/.356/.521 in 23 games.
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) September 23, 2018