The Twins’ spit and baling wire bullpen, a mix of veterans, rookies and major league castoffs, has been the Achilles’ heel of this team since the beginning of the season.
And it continued Saturday after reliever Eric Orze could not protect a 2-1 lead in the 9th inning. He allowed two runs on two hits, and the Twins lost 3-2 to the Kansas City Royals. Fourteen of the Twins’ 36 losses can be tied to the bullpen. Orze was tagged with the loss and blown save, his third of the season.
Another bullpen loss means that ace Joe Ryan exited with another no decision. Ryan did what he does, allowing just a run across six innings on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts. Ryan has made 14 starts this season, but only has seven decisions. His record remains at 4-3 with a 3.07 ERA.
The Twins will try to earn a split of the four-game series on Sunday. Connor Prielipp gets the ball.
Extra innings…
–The Twins are 5-10 in one-run games. They do not have a walkoff win this season.
–Royce Lewis rejoined the team Saturday after a demotion to Triple-A St. Paul to try to get his swing and hitting back on track. He did that and more as he hit eight home runs in 13 games.
But it was a disappointing return, frankly. Lewis went 0-for-3 at the plate, committed a throwing error and with two men on in the bottom of the 9th inning, he took a called third strike to end the game.
–As I listened to Saturday’s game, a Twins game from May 13, 1989, popped up in my You Tube feed, so I settled into watch what became a slugfest as the Twins topped the Toronto Blue Jays and Dave Stieb, 10-8.
Kirby Puckett led the way with four hits in five trips to the plate, a run scored and three RBI. Those four hits? All doubles.
The Star Tribune was there:
That was only the beginning of a troubling afternoon for Stieb, who deserved a lot more help than he got. “I was just trying to get a pitch to hit off Dave Stieb,” said Puckett, who tied the major league mark for doubles. “He’s a great pitcher. We hung around and got going. We just got a lead and took it from there.”
Source: Newspapers.com