With the second quarter of the season underway the Twins find themselves sitting in the proverbial catbird seat, 10 games over .500 and 4.5 up on the Pale Hosers in the AL Central. Luis Arraez, who turned 25 just as the season was getting underway, leads the major leagues in on-base percentage and ranks 4th in batting average. As a team, the Twins lead the American League in OBP, rank third in batting, sixth in slugging, and fourth in OPS. The Twins have the fourth lowest team ERA in the league and only the Astros and Yankees have allowed fewer runs. The caveat, of course, is that it's a long season and we know full well that injury and mayhem can easily derail a team that's on a winning track.
With the increasingly clean-cut Joe Ryan on the IL with COVID, the remarkably shaggier Devin Smeltzer gets another call-up and another trip to a big league mound. He's 1-0 in two starts this year and carries a miniscule 1.74 ERA, the thing is so small it gets lost in his hip pocket. He's performed admirably and I hope he gets a longer look in the bigs this year (unless it's because of illness or injury). The Royals send southpaw Daniel Lynch to the hill with the pill tonight. He's 2-3 on the year with a 4.01 ERA and and 31 strikeouts in 34 innings pitched. The Twins offense was noticeably lacking in the Detroit series and that resulted in a disappointing loss of a thoroughly winnable game yesterday, they'll need to step it up at the plate against KC if they want to maintain their feline-avian throne.
Play ball!
I'm not at all giving up on Buxton, but I wonder if it would be a good idea to drop him down in the lineup for a few games.
I hear rumblings that he has lingering health issues, but who knows for sure.
That's my guess, too, but I thought he might feel a little less pressure if he wasn't at the top of the order.
When did KC go with block lettering on their away kits?
Nice catch, Gio.
First blood.
Miranda is five for his last eleven. Small sample size, obviously, but maybe he's starting to figure things out.
Now six for his last twelve.
Lin-Manuel would be proud. Also, that's more hits than Sano had over his first 65 PA's.
Last 65 too, pretty sure
Well, his first 65 PA's were back in 2015 so I'm not really sure. 😉
At some point, this guy needs to get traded to Milwaukee.
I see it's happened: Bux is now looking up at Jeffers. And Sanchez.
Miranda forcing the defense that inning
Smeltzer looks as ready for the show as he can get. One hitter through five.
Yeah, he's been adequate.
Its not like Buxton looks lost at the plate or is making weak contact, the ball are just finding the fielders gloves
Duffman 😐
Always Whit Freskin' Merrifield
aw shoot. bases loaded, no outs. the royals have us right where they want us…
FFS
Unfortunately bases loaded, no one out, hasn't been a great situation so far this year.
gross
pathetic
byron, please, don’t.
Buxton with a Punto to break up hits hitless skid
yeah, confirmed.
I'm hoping the Twins watched the Blues last night
Please let Luis bat. Please let Luis bat. Please let Luis bat.
LOB City
yeesh. only reason it ended that close is because they barely ran themselves out of 2 DPs.
Smeltzer with a convincing Joe Ryan performance tonight.
That was a ridiculously frustrating game. Did Smeltzer really need the quick hook?
Did Smeltzer really need the quick hook?
I saw on twitter: Managing by a spreadsheet.
Hate to rag on our BP, but we only scored 3 runs. Give me that every game.
It was so frustrating, especially because it was Duffy who was put in. He shouldn't be trusted with a lead at this point.
That said, the loss was on the offense, not the bullpen. I keep trying to remember that.
It was his longest outing of the year.