The Twins suddenly can’t hit or score runs, which has this fan seriously concerned after looking at the team’s remaining schedule for May.
After losing back-to-back series to the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Guardians, including Sunday’s 2-0 loss to the Guards (in which the Twins generated a grand total of one hit), they are now set to face the Padres, Cubs, Dodgers, Angels, Giants, Blue Jays and Astros to close out the month. If this team doesn’t start swinging the bats a little better and scoring runs, the Twins are in jeopardy of losing all of those series as well, which would result in a 7-14 record and an overall record of 26-31 to start June.
How’s it going so far? Not well because the Twins dropped Game 1 to the San Diego Padres at home on Tuesday, 6-1. Again, the starting pitching looked great, but even pitchers and the bullpen need a little something to work with and they didn’t get it until the fourth inning when the Twins tied the game at 1-1.
Starter Louie Varland exited after six innings and in came Griffin Jax, who took the loss and fell to 1-4 on the season. Although it was hardly Jax’s fault because the defense committed three errors in the inning, including an apparent pick-off attempt at third base which hit the Padres player in the back, allowing him to score.
Jax received the tough-luck pitching line of the night: In the top of the seventh, he allowed two runs, both unearned, on zero hits and two walks. Ugh. That made it 3-1 San Diego and then Twins reliever Jorge Alcala served up a three-run blast to Manny Machado in the ninth. Ballgame.
Pablo Lopez gets the ball Wednesday.
Extra innings …
-The Twins have the worst team batting average in the American League at .220. And yet their team ERA ranks No. 2 at 3.33, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
-Feeling the pressure? Carlos Correa, the Twins’ $33 million shortstop, went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts on Tuesday. He is hitting .185.
-Despite the loss, Varland made a quality start, allowing just a run on five hits over six innings with two walks and six strikeouts.
-Slugger (?) Joey Gallo snapped an 0-for-25 hitless streak with a single in Tuesday’s game. However, he is still hitting .189 on the season.
-The Twins at least had six hits in Tuesday’s game, compared to just one on Sunday. Still, they couldn’t do anything with those hits because they were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base.
-On May 9, 1961, the Twins lost at home to the Baltimore Orioles 13-5 after O’s first baseman Jim Gentile hit two grand slams and a sacrifice fly to drive in nine runs. For the Twins, Zoilo Versalles had a 3-for-4 day at the top of the order, Harmon Killebrew homered and Bob Allison hit two more long balls to cap a 3-for-4 day at the plate as well.