April 27, 2021

Twins fall to 0-5 when playing free baseball

The Twins fell to 7-14 on Monday after another all-too familiar loss. So far this season that has meant not enough hits, not enough runs, mental mistakes and just plain bad luck. Once the Twins play extra innings, it’s like entering Death Valley for some reason, and once closer Alex Colome is handed the ball… well, it just seems to end badly.

And so it did, Twins fans.

Colome took over in the 10th inning and served up a home run to give the Cleveland Indians a 5-3 walk-off win. Not only are the Twins 0-5 in extra innings, it was also their fourth walk-off loss of the young season. Colome fell to 1-3 with a 6.75 ERA. He can’t be long for that role.

Jose Berrios allowed only two runs over five-plus innings, and likely would have gone deeper into the game (and helped the Twins win) except manager Rocco Baldelli did the unthinkable: He visited the mound after the pitching coach did so Berrios HAD TO COME OUT. A personal note: I have never actually seen this happen before.

According to the Associated Press:

José Berríos of Minnesota worked 5 2/3 innings, permitting two runs and five hits, but was forced to leave the game after an inadvertent second mound visit by manager Rocco Baldelli.

 

Baldelli said he didn’t realize pitching coach Wes Johnson had already visited the right-hander in the sixth, and accepted full blame for the mistake.

 

“That’s on me and obviously, not a great moment,” Baldelli said. “I wanted to talk to José and give him the opportunity to keep pitching, but I was locked in on something else with the team before I went out.”

Kenta Maeda gets the ball Tuesday.

-Old friend Eddie Rosario did some damage against his previous team. Rosie had two hits, including an RBI double that got the Tribe on the board and cut the Twins’ lead to 2-1.

-At the very least it was good to see rookies Alex Kirilloff and Brent Rooker finally show some action at the plate. Kirilloff doubled and Rooker hit a home run to give the Twins a 1-0 lead in the second inning.

-And then there was this…

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.