By David Weinshilboum

On opening day, Willians Astudillo was coming off a white-hot spring training and remained beloved as “La Tortuga” in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. When he stepped in the box against Milwaukee flamethrower Josh Hader in the 10th, there was hope the Twins could pull out a win. A runner had been placed on second, per new rules, and Astudillo was a contact guy, maybe capable of moving Andrelton Simmons to third—what a professional hitter *should* do. What happened? The Turtle fouled off two heaters then swung and missed on the third. Luis Arraez and Jake Cave also K’ed and the Twins lost.

Little did Twins fans realize that Astudillo’s failure to move the runner over would be a recurring theme for this woebegone team. Four times the Twins have gone into extra innings, and every single game, they’ve failed to move runners over. In each instance, at least one at-bat has proven to be disastrous. The inability to take smart situational at-bats will continue to haunt this team, and will put them at a disadvantage in extra innings.

Sure, Astudillo’s opening-day at-bat can be forgiven. Hader is a beast that tosses fire. But on April 10, he had another opportunity to lead off the 10th. This time Seattle pitcher Keynan Middleton was on the mound. Astudillo swung at all three pitches – two of which were on the outer edge of the strike zone. He popped out and the runner remained on second.

Forgotten in the brutal error-laden loss to the Athletics on April 21 was Mitch Garver’s feeble at-bat to begin the 10th. Granted, Byron Buxton launched a monster home run in the next at-bat, but Garver kept swinging for the fences — and missing in his at-bat. The last strike was a fastball “center cut” as announcer Dan Gladden would say. Trying to punch the ball to the right side would have been the right approach. Garver swung hard and missed.

Perhaps the most problematic situational at-bats took place on April 6 against the Tigers. The Twins began the 10th with a Nelson Cruz single that put runners on first and third. All Max Kepler had to do was hit the ball in the air. Instead, he watched a high strike sail by then swung at a pitch in the dirt for strike three. One out. Next Buxton – having an amazing year – erred. With the infield in, Buck swung at a pitch down and away and the Tigers’ drawn-in infield got Jorge Polanco at the plate.

Too often, Twins hitters make no adjustments to a given situation; they want to believe it’s still 2019 and they are still the Bomba Squad, so they swing from the heels with two strikes. And fail. Sano, Garver, Cave, Astudillo and at times Kepler seem to be without a plan when they step to the plate. It’s fair to question whether dual hitting coaches Edgar Varela and Rudy Hernandez are adequately preparing this team for their work in the batter’s box. If changes aren’t made, there’ll be a lot more extra inning losses when the dog days of summer arrive.

David Weinshilboum, who wants to replace the inimitable and great Patrick Reusse as the most hated Twins blogger, is on Twitter. Follow weinshie and troll him.