Twins can’t escape first-inning curse, drop series to M’s

The Twins showed a lot of fight in their series loss to the M’s, but asking them to come from behind in every game is a tall order.

They pulled it off on Friday — their only win in the series — and came up short in the next two games, both back-to-back walk-off losses, including Sunday’s 7-6 defeat.

It didn’t help that Twins pitching allowed two runs in the first inning of all three games. The pitching command just wasn’t there as Twins pitchers issued 17 base on balls across the series, including four walks in six innings from Taj Bradley on Sunday.

But again, don’t expect the Twins to roll over and play dead because they were losing 6-0 on Sunday, and then Trevor Larnach hit a two-run shot, Royce Lewis followed him with a three-run blast and Luke Keaschall tied the game at 6-6 with his sixth home run of the season.

Closer Yoendrys Gomez, who has been fairly reliable this season, struggled in the ninth, allowing a run on three hits. Ballgame.

The Twins stay on the road and head to Kansas City. Joe Ryan gets the ball against ex-Twin Randy Dobnak on Tuesday, a re-match of their July 29 game. The Dobber won Round 1, but I have a feeling he’s in trouble for Round 2.

Extra innings…

–Well, the Twins again find themselves a game under .500 at 56-57. They are four games out in the division and a game back in the wild card race.

–The Twins have made two deals prior to the trade deadline and it sounds like they might make one more before it’s all over. So far they have acquired lefty reliever A.J. Minter from the Mets and longtime Baltimore Orioles starter Dean Kremer. Kremer is reportedly going to make his first start for the Twins on Wednesday.

–Minter made his major league debut for the Twins on Saturday and made his second appearance on Sunday. Both were scoreless outings.

–Bradley’s line: Three runs allowed on seven hits with four walks and two strikeouts across six innings.

–The trouble with new acquisitions is that you have to create roster space to add them to the team. That meant Zebby Matthews, despite striking out 10 across five innings in Friday’s 5-3 win over the M’s, got sent down to make room for Minter. Joining him at Triple-A St. Paul will be reliever Jack Anderson, who needed to be moved to make room for Kremer.

MLB Trade Rumors on Kremer:

Kremer has been a durable league average starter for the majority of his career. Acquired as a prospect in the 2018 Manny Machado trade with the Dodgers, Kremer has logged parts of seven seasons in Baltimore. He was in the rotation between 2023-25, posting an ERA just above 4.00 with average strikeout and walk marks in each season.