March 25, 2019

About those Boston Red Sox…

The Twins lost to the New York Yankees on Sunday. No surprise, I guess, but to be fair the Twins fielded a team of youngsters, including top pick Royce Lewis, who doubled off pitcher James Paxton in his first at bat. So there was that.

Friday’s loss to the Boston Red Sox was more discouraging because the Twins played what would appear to be their opening day lineup of Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco, Nelson Cruz, Eddie Rosario, C.J. Cron, Marwin Gonzalez, Jonathan Schoop, Jason Castro and Byron Buxton. Let’s face it: that’s a decent lineup!

And yet… the Red Sox did the same and left with a 10-6 victory, reminding everyone that they’re the defending World Series champs.

It’s not that the Twins couldn’t score any runs. They scored six runs on 12 hits, including four extra-base hits. Now, if only the Red Sox hadn’t scored 10 runs on 18 hits.

Starter Kyle Gibson wasn’t sharp. Perhaps he was going to make a limited start anyway, but no matter because he was done after two-plus innings. He gave up five runs on eight hits, including two home runs. He was followed by D.J. Baxendale who gave up two more home runs and three runs total in an inning of work. And that was basically the game.

Extra innings…

-So are these Twins ready for the regular season? Twins hitting appears to be in regular-season form; Twins pitching appears to need some work. Outside of Michael Pineda, the other starters pitched with elevated earned run averages and some relievers didn’t fare any better. Hard-throwing Fernando Romero had a tough spring and will start the year at Triple-A Rochester.

-The Twins play their Triple-A affiliate on Monday, the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday and then they will head north for opening day and the first of a three-game series against the Cleveland Indians on Thursday. Friday is an off day, followed by games Saturday and Sunday. My son and I will be at Sunday’s game. Looking forward to it.

-The opening day matchup is Jose Berrios vs. 20-game winner Corey Kluber.

COMMENTS

Hi, I’m Rolf Boone, Twins fan.

I became a fan of the Minnesota Twins after a friendly wager in the early 1980s. I survived Ron Davis, the meltdown in Cleveland, Phil Bradley at the Kingdome and then marveled at a rising generation of stars and two World Series wins in 1987 and 1991. Brad Radke made the 1990s bearable, while Kirby Puckett’s eye injury, exit from the game and eventual death made it almost too much to bear. The new century ushered in more talent — Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau — and consecutive seasons of playoff baseball, followed by consecutive seasons of losing baseball. A winning season returned in 2015. So here we are. Go Twins.