Twins pitching had no answer for the Texas Rangers on Tuesday, the team losing badly, 16-4, at home.
Making matters worse is that ex-Twin, Tyler Mahle, who, I feel, never had any interest in playing in Minnesota, picked up the win to improve to 6-3 on the season with a 2.34 ERA.
But here’s the real problem: Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson is not a long-term solution in the rotation and my guess is that Wednesday’s starter, David Festa, isn’t either. Combine them with a faltering Bailey Ober and suddenly the Twins find themselves in a position where they might be losing three out of every five games played.
If that’s the case, which is very similar to the problems that bedeviled this team late last season, the current campaign will sink faster than a stone dropped in the Mariana Trench.
The solution would be to look for more pitching, but that’s always easier said than done when you’ve got a team for sale and owners who probably aren’t entirely interested in spending more money, or giving up key prospects to make such a deal.
As mentioned, Festa gets the ball Wednesday.
Extra innings…
–SWR got rocked, serving up seven runs (six earned) on seven hits with three walks and four strikeouts across four-plus innings. Reliever Justin Topa inherited two runners and both scored, and then he was followed by the Jekyll-and-Hyde Jorge Alcala — lights out in one moment but terrible in another — who was blasted for six runs (five earned) on five hits.
–What happens in a blowout? Position players get the ball from their managers. Once again Rocco Baldelli turned to Jonah Bride who, this time, anyway, pitched a scoreless ninth.
–It’s not like Mahle showed up looking like Nolan Ryan. The Twins rapped 10 hits off him and scored four runs. It’s just that Twins pitching surrendered 16 runs on 17 hits.
–The Twins committed three errors, including a rare fielding error from Byron Buxton.