Timely hitting

A digression from the discussion on Morneau's wrist, concerning an opinion that the Twins were one timely hit away from winning the 4-3 game with the Angels, that I'll post here now.

Twins had 8 hits, Angels had 8 hits. Was it a matter of timeliness?

Angels 1st: double, followed by single. One run scores.

Angels 4th: single, followed by homer. Two runs score.

Angels 7th: homer. One run scores.

Twins 8th: hpb, double, single, single, single: Three runs score.

For the game, Twins had seven singles and one double. Angels had four singles, two doubles and two homers; one of their doubles was not "timely" (no one on base, no one drove Trout in), one of the homers was not "timely" (no one on base).

Weak-hitting table-setting teams depend on long scoring sequences and hope for timeliness. Better-hitting teams get extra base hits and let the good things happen. OBP is good; OPS is better.