The Atlanta Braves held up their end of the bargain on Friday with a 3-0 win over the Kansas City Royals, giving the Twins a sliver of hope that they might live another day in their effort to reach the postseason.
Instead, their hopes were dashed pretty quickly by the Baltimore Orioles.
Pablo Lopez coughed up a two-run homer in the second inning, the Birds tacked on a run in the seventh and then poured it on with a four-run eighth to walk all over the Twins 7-2.
Minnesota finally got on the board in the bottom of the ninth, otherwise known as too little, too late. The Twins scored those two runs on four measly hits. How bad has the offense been? The Twins, including Thursday night’s 13-inning loss to the Marlins, were 3-for-27 with runners in scoring position over the two games.
Not sure if anyone cares: Zebby Matthews gets the ball Saturday.
Extra innings…
-The Twins are 82-78 and three games back of the final wild card spot in the American League with two games left in the season. Yes, eliminated. They are 12-25 since Aug. 17. That’s a total collapse.
-I have a few questions for the Twins:
Why did Carlos Correa miss almost half the season?
I understand he dealt with foot pain in the form of plantar fasciitis, but he played in 135 games last season with the same injury. He didn’t hit as well, slashing .230/.312/.399 versus .310/.388/.517, but he still hit 18 home runs and the team benefited from his defensive prowess at shortstop and that incredible arm making strong and pinpoint throws to first base. And don’t forget: the playing-in-pain Correa helped the Twins reach the postseason in 2023. Was that tradeoff not worth it this time around?
Here’s my theory on what’s going on: I think the Twins want a healthy Correa, so they can trade him in the offseason.
What happened to Royce Lewis, Ryan Jeffers, Willi Castro and Jose Miranda?
All of them hit around .200 over the past 30 games.
Why bring Kody Funderburk in and leave him in so long?
I understand the Twins wanted the lefty-lefty matchup with Funderburk on the mound, but how about choosing experience over inexperience? With the season on the line, why not bring in Justin Topa, or anyone else for that matter, who can slam the door shut? Funderburk was terrible, allowing four runs on five hits across one inning on 41 pitches. He faced eight batters, five too many in my opinion.
-Congrats to Byron Buxton, who has played in more than 100 games for the first time since 2017.
-The pitching loss went to Lopez, who fell to 15-10 with a 4.08 ERA and 198 strikeouts, just missing back to back seasons of 200 whiffs. He also set a new career high in wins, but there also were career highs in hits (180), earned runs (84) and home runs (26).
-We’re about to find out what the offseason brings. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.