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A mixture of poor defense, bad bullpen and unproductive chunks of the lineup would sink the Twins for their first home loss in 2015.
Before the start of the game, Trevor Plouffe was asked if the team was looking for respite from the steady barrage of elite pitchers like David Price, Anibal Sanchez and Chris Sale. With a 2-for-19 start to his season, no one would fault the Twins’ third baseman for seeking more humane matchups. Plouffe just shook his head.
“This is the big leagues and you gotta want to face those guys and if you don’t want to face those guys then you shouldn’t be here. We are also in a tough division for pitching and we have to face them all year.”
After striking out in each of his first two at bats against Royals’ starter Danny Duffy, in the bottom of the seventh Plouffe launched Duffy’s 1-1 offering into the left field bleachers to bring the Twins within two. The home run would be his 36th at Target Field - the most by any hitter.
Before the game Plouffe acknowledged that the team’s offensive shortcomings but believed there would be a feast at the end of the famine.
“We obviously didn’t hit like we wanted to hit the first six games but I think that we’re going to be very capable and score some runs this year. So I don’t think anyone is going to be too worry about the way we started. We’d like to have hit better but we’re not worried about it.”
Plouffe’s contribution on Monday would not be nearly enough to help starting pitcher Trevor May, who would pitch well but ultimately be undone by the stomach-turning performance from his defense behind him.
In the third, Lorenzo Cain was able to score Salvador Perez on a sacrifice fly which was set up earlier in the inning by several middle infield misplays by Danny Santana and Brian Dozier.
In the sixth, Cain doubled to right with Mike Moustakas on base. Cain moved up to third and Moustakas scored when Torii Hunter threw the ball back to the infield to simply no one in particular. In the following at-bat, Cain scored on Eric Hosmer’s deep drive to the spacious left-center field bullpen alley. Twins left fielder Oswaldo Arcia gave chase and covered just enough real estate to have the ball deflect off his glove at the wall.
May left the game after 78 pitches and several effective innings with a scattering of a few hard hit balls, including Kendrys Morales’ 405' shot to right-center field. Manager Paul Molitor said he opted to remove him from the game after the Royals’ contact grew louder in the sixth despite the low pitch count.
“All the guys behind me earned their way here and deserve to be here and I know everyone’s working and doing everything they can,” May said after the game refusing to place the blame on his teammates in the field. “Sometimes you just need them to hit it a little bit harder or softer.”
Following Plouffe’s seventh inning home run, the Twins were within two but a six-run eighth inning put the game firmly out of reach. The inning was punctuated by two hit batsmen, a fumbled grounder by Danny Santana and four Twins pitchers needed to record three outs. When asked whether the defense of the game was concerning to him, Molitor was straightforward.
“We just have to play better.”
Easier said than done around these parts as the defensive blunders are more of the same for the Twins. Sunday’s matinee in Chicago featured several routine plays fall that general manager Terry Ryan called out during his pregame media session.
“We gave them way too many outs. Ironically they didn’t come back and hurt us, the three misses,” Ryan said of Eduardo Nunez, Eduardo Escobar and Kurt Suzuki’s inability to catch pop flies.
True, Sunday’s White Sox game mistakes did not hurt but the Royals took their ounce of flesh like good teams do. Continuing the trend of giving away outs -- either because of fielding miscues or because of inferior coverage -- will be painful. The Twins entered Monday’s game as one of the worst teams at turning batted balls into outs. Only the Yankees and the Dodgers have converted fewer balls into outs.
Based on a seven game sample, this team has a lot of repairs to make before it will be able to win games consistently. As far as the home opener goes, at least the weather was good.
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