The Twins took two of three games from the division-leading Kansas City Royals, and they did it in smash-mouth style, scoring nine runs in Game 1 and 13 runs on Sunday. It was the first series win for the Twins since they took two of three games from the Detroit Tigers in early April. The... Continue Reading »

The Twins fell to 7-14 on Monday after another all-too familiar loss. So far this season that has meant not enough hits, not enough runs, mental mistakes and just plain bad luck. Once the Twins play extra innings, it’s like entering Death Valley for some reason, and once closer Alex Colome is handed the ball…... Continue Reading »

Waylaid by COVID-19, and likely distracted by the momentous news out of Minneapolis, the Twins went quietly on Tuesday, dropping a doubleheader to the Oakland A’s. A check of box scores for both games shows there wasn’t nearly enough offense and too many mistakes. In Game 1, Twins pitching issued seven base on balls, had... Continue Reading »

The Twins’ 10-2 blowout victory over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday produced a number of storylines, but the one that interested me was the play of shortstop Andrelton Simmons, whose contributions were both obvious and subtle yet equally important. At the plate, Simmons doubled twice and singled in five at bats. I like his attacking... Continue Reading »

Four Twins pitchers combined to one-hit the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday, including starter Jose Berrios, who not only no-hit the Brewers for six innings, he also had pitched a perfect game to that point. He struck out 12 over six innings with no hits and no walks and yet Berrios was lifted after 84 pitches.... Continue Reading »

Spring training came to an end on Tuesday, the Twins scoring one run on one hit (no, it wasn’t a home run) to finish in a 1-1 tie with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Starter Matt Shoemaker allowed a run over three innings and the bullpen was perfect the rest of the way. So, what does it... Continue Reading »

Prior to Sunday’s game, I had wondered: Where is that spring training game where the bats come alive and the hits come easy and it produces the lopsided win or horse race we come to expect during exhibition play? The Twins have been on the receiving end of one of those games — the 9-1... Continue Reading »

Twins pitcher Jose Berrios appears to have started something. After a scintillating start to exhibition play, Berrios finally turned in a stinker on Tuesday and allowed four runs on eight hits for his first loss in Grapefruit League action. Perhaps “stinker” is not the right word because allowing four runs is certainly not the end... Continue Reading »

Twins starting pitchers Jose Berrios, Kenta Maeda, Matt Shoemaker, J.A. Happ and maybe Randy Dobnak or Lewis Thorpe, have pitched extremely well this spring. So well, in fact, that their collective performance has stood in sharp contrast to that produced by the relief corps. (My apologies to Mr. Michael Pineda who is very much a... Continue Reading »