August 30, 2020

Oh, boy: Twins lose twice to Tigers

The not-so-terrible Tigers on Saturday swept a doubleheader from the Twins, a situation that now has the team from Minnesota looking up in the AL Central at new league leaders. The Tribe is in first, the White Sox are in second and the Twins are now in third place, 1.5 games out of the top spot.

Both games were lousy. Game 1 starter, Randy Dobnak, the feel-good story of 2020 for the Twins, was terrible. The Dobber allowed six runs, all earned, on 12 hits over four-plus innings. Reliever Lewis Thorpe wasn’t much better and the Tigers won, 8-2, scoring those runs on a hard-to-fathom 16 hits.

In Game 2, the Twins went with the opener format and sent five relievers to the mound. It worked OK, but Trevor May served up a two-run home run and Tyler Duffey did the same and that was the game, 4-2, Tigers.

The Twins had a grand total of eight hits in two games. The only bright spot: Nelson Cruz hit a home run in each game and now has 13 dingers on the season through 34 games. How many home runs can he hit over the next 26 games? It will be incredible if he finishes the season in the range of 25-30 home runs.

Kenta Maeda, suddenly the Twins’ best pitcher, gets the ball on Sunday.

Extra innings…

-The only other bright spot to emerge from the doubleheader? The Twins turned four double plays in Game 1.

-The Twins’ offense was offensive. In Game 1, they were 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left three men on base. In Game 2, they were 0-for-2 and left one man on base. In other words, they weren’t even creating chances to score. The Twins earned a grand total of one base on balls over two games. Ugh. And who had the one walk? Eddie Rosario.

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.