August 22, 2019

Twins drop series to White Sox. Jesus.

The Twins’ August schedule suddenly doesn’t look as promising as it once did, especially if the Twins are going to continue to struggle against the Chicago White Sox.

The Twins ran into a buzzsaw named Lucas Giolito on Wednesday, who pitched a complete game, three-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts and won, 4-0.

The Twins dropped two of three games to the South Siders. They’re off Thursday, then the Detroit Tigers, the worst team in baseball, will be at Target Field on Friday. If the Twins can’t sweep this team… well, who knows how angry I’ll be if that happens, but I’ll temper my comments for the moment and just say it will be downright embarrassing if the Twins drop a game to Gardy’s guys.

After that the Twins hit the road to play the South Siders again. Who knows? Maybe the Twins drop that series, too, which means the cat-and-mouse game with the second-place Cleveland Indians will roll into September. And then things will get real dicey to end the season.

The Twins play mostly AL Central foes next month, including the Indians, but they also play three games at Boston and three at home against the Washington Nationals. I have a feeling the AL Central race won’t be decided until the very end.

Jose Berrios gets the ball Friday.

Extra innings…

-At least the Twins caught a break on Wednesday. They lost, but so did the Indians, who fell in walk-off fashion to those red-hot New York Mets. The Twins’ AL Central lead still stands at three games.

-Jake Odorizzi took the loss and fell to 13-6. Odo, as we all know, is not the most efficient pitcher. He threw 104 pitches over five innings and allowed four runs (three earned), with a walk and six strikeouts. The bullpen was spotless the rest of the way.

-The White Sox have a losing record against the AL East, AL West and National League, but against the Central, the Pale Hose are 28-25.

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.