Another day, another absolutely pathetic showing from the Twins’ offense. The pitchers once again did their part, but Harrison Bader can’t drive in all the runs himself.
The offense looked downright lost against Royals ace Cole Ragans through four innings, but were able to scrape across a run in the fifth. Ty France lined a double into the left field corner and Edouard Julien got hit by a pitch to put a couple on for Twins MVP Harrison Bader. Bader drove a ball deep to left field where Mark Canha made a valiant attempt at a catch but couldn’t come up with the ball. France came around to score but Ragans was able to quickly get Mickey Gasper and Byron Buxton to end the threat.
Pablo Lopez ran into a bit of a jam himself in the bottom half of the inning, allowing two men to reach ahead of the heart of the order. Then things really took a turn after Lopez appeared to hurt his hamstring on his final pitch and had to be removed from the game. Cole Sands, thrown into an impossible spot following the injury, came in and walked Bobby Witt Jr. before a long AB against Vinnie Pasquantino ended with a 379 foot fly out. It would have been a grand slam in 12/30 ballparks, but not this one!
After Sands’ magic act, Jorge Alcala and Danny Coulombe threw a couple of scoreless frames, giving way to Griffin Jax in the 8th. Jax looked much better this time out and escaped the inning with just 12 pitches, but airmailed a hopper back to the mound that allowed Bobby Witt Jr. to reach third and eventually score, leading to the winning run.
We can quibble about the three errors error that led to both Royals runs, but once again, the reality is that the Minnesota pitching did plenty to win this game despite losing the ace in the fifth inning. They allowed three hits the entire game and still lost. Correa hit a couple doubles, finally showing some life, and everyone was hitting the ball fairly hard, but they’re consistently pounding the ball into the dirt.
I said it before and I’ll say it again: there’s no pitching staff on Earth that can drag this lineup to a win right now. The Twins have scored three or fewer runs in 7/11 games so far and they’ve lost every single one. When they score more than three, they are 3-1. This team will turn around once the bats start moving and not a moment before.
And yes, the title is, of course, a reference to early 2000s Christian rock band Relient K.
STUDS
- Carlos Correa (oh thank god): 2-4, 2 doubles
- Coles Sands: magician
- Entire pitching staff: 9 IP, 3 hits allowed!!
DUDS
- Byron Buxton: 0-4, 4 K
- Jose Miranda: 0-3, 3 K
- Mickey Gasper: 0-3, 1 K, error and unturned double play in the same half inning that led to KC’s first run
By the light of Prince, Harmon Killebrew, and Walter Mondale above, someone teach these boys how to hit. I need a drink.