Inconsistency continues to plague 1st-place Twins

DETROIT -- It’s another frontier of the old school vs. new school debate in baseball as to whether the concept of momentum does, in fact, exist in the sport.

Count the 2023 Twins into the column of evidence against the concept.

After matching a season high with a five-game winning streak following their sweep of Arizona and a win in Monday’s series opener against the Tigers, the Twins fell flat in the final three games to lose a four-game set against their division rivals at Comerica Park. That stretch was capped by a 3-0 loss in Thursday afternoon’s series finale in which Minnesota was held to two hits for the first time since being one-hit in Cleveland on May 7.

“You don't want to keep saying, ‘Hey, it's baseball. It's baseball,’” said Ryan Jeffers, who had a career-long 14-game hitting streak snapped. “Because at some point, you want to be more consistent. You don't want to have these stretches. You don't want to lose three out of four to a team like this. But when you do, you do. It's tough to sit here and look and overanalyze.”

And thus continues the Twins’ mystifyingly inconsistent second half. They began by winning nine of 11 games, followed by a five-game skid, then won six of seven before this three-game losing streak.

Those losing streaks have been made even tougher by the fact that they’ve included a three-game sweep at the hands of the last-place Royals and this series loss to the Tigers, two divisional opponents that haven’t been competitive all season.

What’s stopping the Twins from finding some consistency?

“I don't know that one,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I don't think there's anything that's particularly getting in the way of the consistency. We've had maybe a little bit of roster change and had some movement there. But watching the games, guys that generally have pretty good at-bats, some days [they] don't.”

If there is anything that has been consistent all season, it is that level of inconsistency, particularly on offense. After scoring nine runs in the series opener against rookie left-hander Joey Wentz, the Twins were shut out twice in three games by a Detroit pitching staff that carried a 4.51 ERA into the series finale.

Six scoreless innings by Detroit right-hander Reese Olson on Thursday sank the Twins to a 16th loss in which they allowed three or fewer runs, tied with the Royals for the most in the Majors.

They haven’t had as many of those in the second half, when the offense has found some more consistency -- but it’s also been tougher for them to find consistent pitching performances like Kenta Maeda’s six innings of one-run ball on Thursday. He was tagged only by a Riley Greene solo homer in the sixth, making it more important to take care of business in those games.

Case in point: Even when the offense did get to Detroit starter Alex Faedo on Wednesday, both stalwart starter Bailey Ober and the bullpen faltered, leading to a 9-5 loss.

“They always pitch us well,” Jeffers said. “It's my fourth year up here, and every time we come here and play them, it's always tough-fought ballgames. They always pitch us well. What it is? I don't know whether they've got a good report or they just execute really well against us. They just seem to always make pitches when they need to.”

On the one hand, the Twins still lead the American League Central by 3 1/2 games, and the depleted second-place Guardians traded away Major Leaguers at the Trade Deadline and have just as inconsistent of an offense -- if not more so -- than the Twins.

On the other hand, these sorts of series in which the Twins have faltered -- three games against Kansas City, four against Detroit -- are ones the club should use to really pull away in the division and not let the Guardians stick around, especially as the Twins have series against the Rangers (two), Rays and Reds remaining on the schedule.

“You want to overanalyze and find a reason of, ‘Why do we not come in here and win the games we should win?’” Jeffers said. “You look at today, you can say that on paper, it chalks it up as a favorable matchup for us, but when a guy like they were throwing today does what he does, it’s going to be tough for anybody to score runs off that.”

And now, if there is momentum to be found in this sport, the Twins will have to start anew to find it again.