May 31, 2021

Signs of life give way to reality: The Twins aren’t very good

The four-game winning streak and the sweep of the Baltimore Orioles got me fired up, thinking that the Twins were beginning to work their way out of a deep hole and were on to better times.

And then they went and dropped two of three games (at home no less) to the Kansas City Royals, reminding me, once again, that the Twins do not have enough quality pitching in the rotation or bullpen, they do not have enough hitting with their rookie-laden lineup and then there’s just the dumb luck of having too many injured players.

What does it all mean? It means the Twins are good enough to beat the weakest team in the American League (the Baltimore Orioles) and will struggle against the not-so-great Royals and every other team like them. What happens to the Twins when they make the rest of their swing through the AL East? I shudder to think what will happen.

The Twins lost 6-3 on Sunday after Matt Shoemaker allowed five runs, all earned, over four-plus innings. He is now 2-6 with an ERA of almost 6.00. The Twins countered with three runs on five hits. They scored a run on a bases-loaded walk, a solo home run from rookie catcher, Ben Rortvedt, and an RBI ground out from Miguel Sano. Bomba 2.0? I don’t think so.

Jose Berrios gets the ball on Monday in Baltimore.

Extra innings…

-I came across an interesting factoid on Sunday, courtesy of the always amazing Baseball-Reference.com. Tough-luck pitcher, Pedro Ramos, who pitched for some terrible Washington Senators teams and later pitched for the Twins in 1961 and the Indians in 1962, had a whale of a day on May 30, 1962.

Ramos pitched a complete game three-hitter to shut out the Orioles and drove in five of the Tribe’s seven runs with two home runs, including a grand slam.

The ’62 Indians were a decent team that hovered around first place for most of the season until a nine-game losing streak in July. The losing streak also included a three-game throttling of the Tribe by the Twins. The Twins swept the Indians 7-2, 14-3 and 8-0.

In Game 1, Camilo Pascual dazzled ’em, striking out 10 over nine innings, allowing just two runs on five hits. Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew homered for the Twins.

In Game 2, the Twins scored 11 runs in the first inning en route to the 14-3 blow out. They connected for 15 hits, including four home runs, two of them off Killebrew’s bat. Pitcher Dick Stigman also went the distance with 11 strikeouts.

And in Game 3, Jim Kaat shut out the Tribe on three hits and was backed by two Allison home runs.

The Twins were a good team in ’62. They finished the regular season at 91-71, five games behind the pennant-winning New York Yankees.The Indians wound up in sixth place at 80-82. The Yankees beat the San Francisco Giants in the World Series, 4-3.

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.