I must admit that I don’t have much of a pulse for the 2022 Twins these days, despite the walk-off home run hit by Jose Miranda on Wednesday that carried the club to a 4-1 win and a split of the two-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers.
The problem is this: When is this team going to put together a sustained winning streak and show us that they really belong atop the AL Central and are something more than an early exit in the postseason? Because right now I’m not seeing it.
The Twins through May were a very promising 30-21, but since then they are a yawn-inducing, ho-hum 19-20. In other words, a .500 ballclub showing us they will win occasionally and lose occasionally. Stop the presses.
The Twins welcome the Chicago White Sox on Thursday for the final four-game series before the All-Star break. Sonny Gray gets the ball. Want to show us something, Minnesota? Sweep the South Siders before the break, then rest up and and run away from the rest of the competition in the division. Call me a believer then.
Extra innings…
-What’s up with Byron Buxton? He might be an All-Star and lead the team in home runs, but he is accomplishing little else at the plate. He put up a big ol’ goose egg on Wednesday, striking out four times in five trips to the plate. He is hitting .208 on the season and .196 over the past month.
-Miranda really bailed out the Twins in the ninth inning because they were otherwise struggling to score baserunners. The Twins were 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base.
-On July 13, 1984, the Detroit Tigers’ Lou Whitaker hit a blooper that turned into an inside-the-park home run (the Metrodome, of course) and an eventual 5-3 win over the Twins.
“Win or lose, it was a helluva ball game,” said Twins manager Billy Gardner to the Minneapolis Star and Tribune. “I don’t think we’ll suffer any emotional let down out of it. This club has been bouncing back all season. The pressure is on the guys down the hall (Detroit) not us.”
Based on that quote, I can tell that Gardner’s priorities were all screwed up. The Tigers on July 13, 1984, were 58-28 and had a seven-game lead in the AL East. The Twins, on the other hand, were tied for first place in the AL West and hadn’t won the division since 1970. Pressure? Gardner should have known better. Unless, of course, he was trying to deflect some pressure…
The 1984 season was his last full season of managing the Twins. He was fired 62 games into the 1985 season and replaced by Ray Miller.
Sources: MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com