April 14, 2021

Bullpen struggles again, Twins lose again

The Twins dropped the opener of their four-game series with the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, a series that was postponed on Monday after the shooting death of Daunte Wright over the weekend in Brooklyn Center, outside Minneapolis.

Perhaps Tuesday’s game should have been canceled as well. The game-time temperature was 33 degrees and it snowed, likely making hitting and pitching a challenge.

The Twins scored two runs in the first, the Boston Red Sox tied the game in the fifth and then made a loser out of reliever Randy Dobnak in the eighth after he allowed a run on two hits over three innings. The Red Sox added an insurance run in the ninth to win 4-2. The Dobber fell to 0-2 with an ERA of 9.00. Tough way to start the year after he signed a five-year contract extension worth at least $9.25 million.

Twins starter J.A. Happ allowed only two runs, but he was also done after four-plus innings and 87 pitches. As for the offense, it’s a good thing that Byron Buxton is still hot because right now he IS the offense. He had two of the Twins’ five hits, including a double, the only extra-base hit for the Twins on the day. He hit cleanup during the series with the Seattle Mariners, but was at the top of the order on Tuesday.

The Twins and Red Sox play a doubleheader on Wednesday. Kenta Maeda gets the ball in Game 1, Jose Berrios in Game 2.

Extra innings…

-The Twins have lost three straight games and are now 5-5 on the young season.

-Josh Donaldson is set to return to the Twins lineup on Wednesday, according to MLB.com, which is great news after the heart of the order on Tuesday — Mitch Garver, Jorge Polanco and Miguel Sano — went 0-for-8. Sano did earn two free passes to first base, but I’d much rather see him hit pitches out of the ballpark. He’s hitting .086.

-Old friend watch: Texas Rangers pitcher, Kyle Gibson, made another quality start on Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Rays. He allowed two runs (one earned) over seven innings to improve to 2-0 with a 4.05 ERA. And Eddie Rosario had two hits, including a double, in the Tribe’s 2-0 win over the Chicago White Sox. The Indians aren’t done competing, are they?

-And then there was this…

Red Sox first baseman, Bobby Dalbec, jumped high to field an errant throw and Willians Astudillo went low, sliding under him and feet first to be called safe. The legend of La Tortuga grows.

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.