The Twins remained winless in extra-inning games on Tuesday after the bullpen collapsed late to give the Texas Rangers the 6-3 win. The club beat the Rangers on Monday, 6-5, but both games were very similar. Here’s why: starting pitching did not go deep into the game, which meant manager Rocco Baldelli had to go... Continue Reading »

Sixty-nine years ago Red Smith, the Dean of all American sportswriters, went to his typewriter (or so I presume) and tapped out the most famous sports lede of all time after the New York Giants’ Bobby Thomson hit a ball into the left field stands at the Polo Grounds off the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Ralph Branca.... Continue Reading »

The Twins suffered one of their worst regular-season losses in Twins history on Wednesday, a defeat that rivals the 11-10 meltdown to the Cleveland Indians on Sept. 28, 1984. In other words, it wasn’t pretty. The Twins scored first, the Oakland A’s scored next, the Twins tied the game at 7-7, then pulled ahead to... Continue Reading »

Starter Kenta Maeda earned his first win of the season, Jorge Polanco delivered a key hit and the Twins edged the Detroit Tigers 3-2 on Wednesday to take two of three games from the Motor City-based club. The Twins have won four of their first six games of the season. The Twins fell behind early,... Continue Reading »

Twins outfielder, Max Kepler, singled, doubled and tripled in Game 1 of the regular season on Thursday, reminding Twins fans everywhere (OK, me) that spring training results are pretty much meaningless. Kepler hit all of .070 during spring training, but it sure didn’t seem to matter on Thursday. Also bucking the trend was, Byron Buxton,... 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 »

Free agent pitcher and ex-Yankee, J.A. Happ, saw more spring training action on Friday, but perhaps he wishes he hadn’t after he was roughed up in a 7-6 loss to the Atlanta Braves. The Twins are 1-6 in exhibition play against the Braves. Happ followed Kenta Maeda, who was his usual sterling self. Maeda scattered... Continue Reading »

The starting pitching has been strong, the bullpen has shown improvement, but this Twins team is not hitting, and that was underscored Tuesday after they were shut out by the Pittsburgh Pirates 1-0. The Twins had a grand total of three hits. After that loss, I crunched some numbers that showed the Twins have scored... 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 »