The Twins were swept by the Athletics on Thursday and perhaps radio play-by-play voice Kris Atteberry summed it up best as the team quickly unraveled in a six-run, second inning.
“Ugh. Just ugh,” he said. “When you don’t pitch, it gets ugly.”
Twins starting pitcher Jose Urena was a mess, reliever Michael Tonkin wasn’t much better and the Twins lost their third straight game by a final score of 8-3.
Not all the blame rests with the pitching because there are some ice-cold bats in the Twins lineup. Over the last seven games:
- Royce Lewis is hitting .136;
- Byron Buxton is hitting .133;
- Kody Clemens is hitting .125;
- And backup catcher Mickey Gasper doesn’t even have a hit in his last seven games. He’s batting .000 over that span. Oy vey.
The Twins now head to Chicago to face the White Sox. Zebby Matthews gets the ball.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 58-69. I have a feeling this team might be 20 games under .500 when it’s all said and done.
–Urena’s line on Thursday: Six runs allowed on seven hits, including three doubles, across five innings with two walks, three strikeouts and a throwing error at first base, which may have been the hardest ball he threw all afternoon. He tossed 96 pitches.
–Although Urena and Tonkin struggled, the Twins got two-plus scoreless innings from Everyday Erasmo and Brooks Kriske.
–What’s future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander still trying to prove? He got run out of town by the San Diego Padres 8-4 on Thursday to fall to 1-10 on the season with a 4.64 ERA. Call it a career, dude.
–The Kansas City Royals are on a nice little run. They won again on Thursday and are now 8-2 in their last 10 games, four games over .500 and two games back in the wild card race.
–The Royals also are in second place in the AL Central because the Cleveland Guardians have faded again and are now just two games over .500.
–The Twins are terrible against teams with winning records. Against those teams better than .500, the Twins are 28-41.