A week ago the Twins had slumped to a record of 7-13, leaving many fans, including this one, with questions about whether the club was truly up to the task of defending their division title. The team was struggling to hit and the injuries were piling up. In the glass-half-empty world of Twins fandom, many of us were on the verge of writing them off.
Since then, though, the Twins have reeled off six straight wins, including a four-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox, plus a series win over the Los Angeles Angels that was punctuated by a 16-5 beatdown of the Halos Saturday night.
The Twins scored those 16 runs on 17 hits and every starting member of the lineup got into the action, including Kyle Farmer, who finally broke out of a season-long slump with two hits, two runs scored, two runs batted in and two walks. All of that and he is still hitting only .100, a reminder of just how bad the slump was.
Farmer was one of seven Twins with at least two hits. Eddie Julien led the way with three hits, Max Kepler hit a solo shot and Carlos Santana hit his third straight home run and drove in four more.
Ryan Jeffers also hit a dinger off former Twin Aaron Hicks, who was called on as a position player to pitch the ninth in the blowout loss for the Angels. Although Hicks took it easy on the mound, he apparently was a good high school baseball pitcher and could have dialed up the heat, according to Twins radio guys Kris Atteberry and Glen Perkins. The numbers bear that out: Hicks went 11-2 with a 1.11 ERA with 144 strikeouts over 13 starts, according to MLB.com.
Starter Chris Paddack wasn’t as impressive in this appearance as he was in his last, but he did just enough to earn the win. He allowed four runs on eight hits across five innings on 95 pitches.
Pablo Lopez gets the ball Sunday against Reid Detmers who has pitched well for the Angels.
Extra innings…
-The Twins are now 13-13 in the AL Central, 1.5 games behind the third-place Detroit Tigers. The Twins still have some work to do.
-The 16-run win means the Twins have scored 113 runs this season versus 111 against.
-The Twins have one more game against the Angels, three on the road versus the White Sox and then the club is going to get its first real serious test of the season, which should determine whether their improved play is the real deal or a fluke. Through mid-May, the Twins play the Red Sox, Mariners, Blue Jays, Yankees and Guardians. A sweep of the Angels and another sweep of those woeful White Sox certainly wouldn’t hurt.
-Ex-Twin Jose Berrios suffered a tough-luck loss in his last appearance against the Royals, a game that appears to have been shortened by rain. Berrios allowed two runs over five innings and the Blue Jays lost, 2-1. He is still 4-1 with a 1.23 ERA.