KC 4, MIN 1: Odorizzi, Offense Come Up Short

Fielding drill needed. My cat could hit better than Cave, there must be someone they can replace him with. Stewart did a nice job.

If our worse slump of the season is this (losing 4 out the last 5) that would be pretty impressive. Let's turn it around tomorrow and take the last 3 of the series. I'm predicting Sano is gonna have a great game and Perez will give us 7 shutout innings tomorrow.

Man, the Twins looked out of it. They tried, too hard, but looked exhausted. Maybe they should come in early and frolic in the fountains before batting practice. A good nite of rest and then come back and have fun playing the game (and watching the video and reading the charts of these guys you played last week).

The running game can be exciting. What would it take to get the Twins to steal some bases! Okay, NOT hit home runs!

Only got to see a little of the game, but very surprised, pleasantly so, by Stewart out of the pen.

I am NOT bashing this team in the midst of a tremendous season. But I feel they be a bit overconfident lately. Errors will be made. Hitters and pitchers will all have some rough patches here and there. It's baseball. Unfortunately, there has been a bit of a slump the last week, overall. Nothing to be concerned about. And I love the confidence of this club. But I would like to see them, collectively, take a look in the mirror and get a little angry at some blown opportunities and take it out on the Royals the next few games.

BTW, if you haven't checked it out yet, there is a really nice article in the Blogosphere by Adam Kruger entitled THE NECESSARY STRUGGLE that is a very good read.

Go Twins!

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this team play .500 ball from here on out. That should still win the Central. But they need to beat teams that only win 1 out of 2 games from the rest of the league.

Back to back ugly starts.  Guess a rough patch was due to happen at some point.  Key will be getting their swagger back.  Beating up KC in two of the three remaining would be a good start.

Had been of the opinion that Stewart slipped following the progress he made last September.  Encouraged by what I saw last night.

In our championship years we had pride in our defense, this year's defense is surprisingly poor.  With our outfield and Garver improved behind the plate - that leaves the infield (I hope the others hold up) and the players we have might not be exciting in the field, but they should be competent.  What is the cause?  

Finally, the question I have - is Cave pressing?  He looked so much better last year and in the  minors.

In our championship years we had pride in our defense, this year's defense is surprisingly poor.  With our outfield and Garver improved behind the plate - that leaves the infield (I hope the others hold up) and the players we have might not be exciting in the field, but they should be competent.  What is the cause?  

 

Finally, the question I have - is Cave pressing?  He looked so much better last year and in the  minors.

Probably.  He knows he only has a couple of games to somehow try to make a case to stay up.

Maybe this team is reverting to what it really is.  Average at best pitching and a boom or bust offense.  The defense really has to better than it has been the last 2 weeks.

Yesterday was Thursday, June 20 and it was the 74th game of the year.  The Twins are now 46%  of the way through the season.  Out of 59 years, the current team ranks 25th on the all-time list of Twins' home runs in one season and are on a pace to hit 309 home runs this season.

If our worse slump of the season is this (losing 4 out the last 5) that would be pretty impressive. Let's turn it around tomorrow and take the last 3 of the series. I'm predicting Sano is gonna have a great game and Perez will give us 7 shutout innings tomorrow.

I want what ever you are taking. I dont think either of those things are going to happen. I feeling Twins lose 8 to 3. 

Every baseball team will have stretches like this.  That being said, this team appears to have checked out mentally.  There is absolutely no excuse for these errors.  Hitting is hard, but it also seems like there may be a lack of concentration going on here also or maybe they are just trying to hit home runs and not execute a plan.

We knew pitching would regress, but the defense and offensive plan need to improve.

Berrios & Pineda seem to me to be reliable starters, lets go make a deal with Toronto for Stroman & Giles and hope that gets attitudes corrected!

I'd like to see Stewart transitioned to the bullpen when he gets optioned back to AAA, to see what might be there and possibly help the big league club 

Perez has had four bad starts in a row now, and two of those four were really, really bad.  I say keep Poppen and Stewart lengthened out at AAA, although I really like the idea of Poppen's stuff out of the pen. We have had no starter injury problems thus far but if anyone goes down the depth at AAA will keep us from overpaying to get a starter via trade. 

I've thought for a while now that Stewart would be a decent piece to the bullpen if only to eat up innings games like the one where we had a 10-1 lead or for an occasional spot start.     Maybe an Anthony Swarzak role for the future..... Thing about streaky hitters is that they tend to streak.    Cave was a great hitter the last month in the minors but if he was that guy all the time he would be Mike Trout.    Its unfortunate his hot streak was there instead of here and now.   I think thats all it is.   He was on a hot streak and now on a cold streak.   Hopefully short lived.....Most good teams don't  win 5.5 out of every 10 games.    They play at or near .500 ball most of the time and have some decent hot streaks to overcome a couple cold streaks to end up averaging 5.5 wins every 10 games.    Current Twins have won about 15 of 21 series with a few ties and haven't been swept once.   That is ridiculously good and cannot be sustained.    .500 ball with one modest win streak from this point would be ok with me.     87 team was swept 7 times.   The mlb season is definitely more of a marathon than a sprint

Pitching hasn't been as good and the whole lineup is pretty much slumping.  If Cleveland wasn't playing so well I wouldn't care but would hate to this team reeled in by the All Star break.   

That being said I believe Houston has lost 4 in a row.  The Yankee's have had tough stretches this year.  Every team, even good teams go through these.  Just hoping we can pull out of it sooner rather than later.

The Royals always seem to give us problems.  Here's hoping we can break out.

When a team scores a total of 9 runs in 4 games it makes any mistakes by pitching and defense more glaring. If the bats don't get back on track it really makes no difference. 5 runs is the bench mark and Twins haven't scored more than 4 in the past 4 games. This is a 4 game series and just a split is ok so lets just do it starting with tonight.

The Twins were bound to cool off at some point.  Minor injuries continue to pile up.  The bats cooled off. The arms cooled off. The gloves turned to stone. All at the same time. It happens.

To me, the big issue is the number of injuries.  I don't think that it is a coincidence that the roughest stretch (so far) in the season comes when Buxton and Gonzalez (and even Adrianza?!?!) are on the shelf.  Suddenly, Rocco The Mad Genius has less flexibility when making out his lineup card. There have been very few games in which the actual A-lineup has been healthy.  Meanwhile, Cave and The Turtle are almost forced to play every day at this point -- when neither should be an every day player for a playoff team.

The Twins will get through this stretch of games just fine.  Get everyone healthy. Be patient. Add a couple of arms. The glass is still more than half full. 

Actually, what worries me the most of last night game is Garver. He has been excellent. I hoe is nothing, but those things in the heel or the foot are pesky.

I want what ever you are taking. I dont think either of those things are going to happen. I feeling Twins lose 8 to 3. 

Ok? Just because I wanted to make a prediction about a couple of players having good games you think I'm taking something. Next time just don't even reply to me.