A day after the Twins restored my faith in the club and its pitching with a 6-2 win over the Texas Rangers, I am again questioning everything about the legitimacy of this rotation after Bailey Ober and company were absolutely steamrolled by the Rangers, 16-3, on Thursday.
The Twins dropped the series to the Rangers and in the process were outscored 34-13 over three games.
Ober had a terrible outing in Thursday’s loss, serving up seven runs, all earned, on six hits, including four dingers, across four-plus innings with six walks and a balk to boot. That is ugly.
“It was a tough day out there,” Ober told MLB.com. “Struggling to find the zone, and then when I do, the ball’s getting hit. So yeah. It was a tough day.”
Well, that’s one way to put it.
Making matters worse is that Cole Sands wasn’t any better, and then reliever, Joey Wentz, newly claimed off waivers, was just as bad, coughing up a three-run jack and walking three batters. The game finally ended with position player Jonah Bride getting the ball and serving up the sixth and final home run of the game.
The Twins now head to Houston. Chris Paddack gets the ball Friday.
Extra innings…
–Why is Kody Clemens still on this team? He can’t hit and he can barely play the infield. Certainly, Eddie Julien can do no worse, right?
–Listening to the game on Thursday, radio voice Kris Atteberry said the Rangers had the worst on-base plus slugging percentage in the American League coming into the series versus the Twins.
Not anymore.
“They don’t want to leave,” said Atteberry about the Rangers.
–It doesn’t get any easier against the Astros. They are eight games over .500, 7-3 in their last 10 games and they have a plus-30 run differential as of this writing. They also are 20-17 versus teams that have a record better than .500.
–At least they won’t have to face Houston’s Framber Valdez who struck out 12 across five innings in a 4-3 win over the White Sox on Thursday.