Originally Published at The Tenth Inning Stretch

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This is the second installment in this series. You can find the first one here and all of them here in reverse chronological order. I will be doing these approximately weekly or at the end of every 2 series.

In the last 2 series against the Yankees and Rangers the Twins as a team hit a respectable .279/.328/.434 with 6 HR and scored 28 runs. This was not enough to get them to finish better than 2-5 in these series. Part of the problem was striking out 52 times in 271 plate appearances, grounding into 6 double plays and stranding 54 runners, an average of 7.7 runners a game.

The Twins Hitter of the Week was:

Justin Morneau

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5468/6950716222_e8d81b2235_z.jpg

.261/.370/.652 3 HR, 4 RBI, 6 R in 27 plate appearances

Unlike the hitting, the Twins' pitching in the last 2 series was primarily responsible for their 2-7 record against the Rangers and the Yankees. As a team, the Twins pitched to a 5.46 ERA, allowing 79 hits (including 13 home runs, 15 doubles and a triple,) 37 Runs (all earned) in 61 innings, facing 272 batters. They threw 959 total pitches and 612 of them were strikes. The walked 14 and struck out 35. This results in a 1.53 WHIP, 5.2 K/9 and 2.5 K/BB.

The Twins' Pitcher of the Week was:

Jared Burton

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5346/7096786667_37f511b18d_z.jpg

3 Games, 3.3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 5K