May 7, 2021

Unbelievable: Twins now 0-7 in extra innings

So much for getting the season back on track.

After taking two of three games from the Kansas City Royals, it appeared the Twins may have found a little momentum to get another series win over the Texas Rangers. Instead, the club dropped three of four games to the Rangers at home, including two more games in extra innings, which means the Twins are now 0-7 when playing free baseball.

They lost 4-3 on Thursday in the 10th inning.

The Twins scored three runs on eight hits. Max Kepler hit a solo shot and Willians Astudillo had three hits, but the lineup largely struggled, going 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. They also struck out 13 times on Thursday and 15 times on Wednesday to lose 3-1.

Starter Michael Pineda gave the Twins a quality start and reliever Taylor Rogers struck out four on 15 pitches, but reliever Hansel Robles blew the save after he allowed a home run. Later, reliever Tyler Duffey uncorked a wild pitch, which allowed a base runner to advance to third, and then he served up the go-ahead RBI single for the loss.

The 11-19 Twins now head to Motown to play the 9-23 Tigers. Yep, it’s the battle of the bottom. Matt Shoemaker gets the ball. Another bad start out of Shoe and I bet the clock starts ticking on his tenure with the club.

Extra innings…

-Miguel Sano, who we used to think of as a slugger, has rejoined the lineup. He went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts on Thursday.

-This is the kind of news the Twins absolutely don’t need: Byron Buxton is day to day with a strained hip.

-Longtime Twins infield prospect, Nick Gordon, finally made his major league debut on Thursday. He had a hit, a walk, stole two bases and turned a double play, one of two on the day for the Twins. More bright spots, please.

-And then there was this…

-The 1924 Phillies were 55-96-1, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

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.