Dogs love cats, pigs can fly and up is down because that’s the only way I can explain what has happened to the 2024 Minnesota Twins over the past month or so.
Not only are they are struggling, they are playing like a 100-loss team to wind down the season. The Twins are on the verge of falling to 82-80 to end the season after they were nearly 20 games over .500 on Aug. 17. If they lose again, they will be 12-27 over the past 39 games, a winning percentage of 30 percent, or just slightly better than the current pace set by the Chicago White Sox, one of the worst teams in major league history.
And after losing 7-2 to the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, they were blown out again by them on Saturday, 9-2. The Birds scored nine unanswered runs until the Twins tacked on two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Starter Zebby Matthews allowed six runs, reliever Louie Varland served up two more and reliever Diego Castillo was tagged for the ninth and final run of the night. Reliever Justin Topa made a scoreless appearance in the eighth and infielder Kyle Farmer got the ball in the ninth. He closed out the game on two hits.
Bailey Ober gets the ball on Sunday.
Extra innings…
-Here’s the worst part: The Atlanta Braves have won the first two of three games against the Kansas City Royals. If the Twins had done their part against the Orioles, the Twins would be a game out of the wild card race with a game to play. If the Braves win tomorrow, the Twins need to take a long, hard look in the mirror and ask themselves: Where did we go wrong?
-Zebby’s line: Six runs allowed on seven hits, including two home runs, with three walks and five strikeouts across three innings on 80 pitches. Terrible.
-Varland’s line: Two runs allowed on four hits, including a dinger, with no walks and three strikeouts over two innings on 37 pitches.
-Castillo’s line: 1 run allowed on three hits with a walk, two strikeouts and a wild pitch on 38 pitches.
-At least the fans showed up: Saturday night’s attendance was slightly better than 30,500. The Twins, though, are going to finish 10th out of 15 American League teams in attendance at around 1.9 million fans. The White Sox did not finish last, but in 13th place. Last place went to those Oakland A’s, who said goodbye to the Bay Area last week.