The Philadelphia Phillies, the best team in baseball (by record, anyway), kick off a three-game set at Target Field today, which means if the Twins aren’t careful their two-game losing streak could easily be extended in the coming days.
The second half of the season is not off to a good start after they were swept by the Milwaukee Brewers Saturday and Sunday. The bullpen had a lousy weekend, and although Twins bats showed some pop at times, they largely struggled at the dish with runners in scoring position. Over two games, they went 3-for-26 in that category and left 20 men on base. Ugh.
Staring pitching was a different story. Pablo Lopez allowed one run over seven innings on Saturday and Joe Ryan just missed a quality start on Sunday, allowing four runs across six innings. The larger problem was the bullpen, which got rocked in an 8-4 extra-innings meltdown on Saturday, then served up four more runs in an 8-7 defeat on Sunday.
Jorge Alcala, who has been so sharp of late, blew the save on Sunday, Griffin Jax absorbed the loss and Caleb Thielbar, who just hasn’t been very good, coughed up an additional run.
Bailey Ober has a tall order on Monday: he has to face the Phils’ Ranger Suarez, an All-Star and one of the best pitchers in baseball during the first half of the season.
Extra innings…
-One of the challenges is that there is a lot of youth in the Twins lineup at the moment due to injuries. Those players: Eddie Julien, Brooks Lee, Austin Martin and Matt Wallner, who, despite some success at Triple-A St. Paul, can’t seem to hit major league pitching. The good news is that Byron Buxton hit two home runs and Trevor Larnach added a third on Sunday. Keep hitting, guys. They miss Carlos Correa, who is now on the injured list. Jose Miranda, he of the 12 straight hits, is due back soon and we are all waiting on the return of Royce Lewis.