Twins' often-clutch offense takes a backseat

MINNEAPOLIS -- Earlier this week, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli admitted his team is playing in a new reality. Once the home run-record holding ‘Bomba Squad’, the 2022 Twins, with offense down across the league, have traded their big sticks and brute force for timely singles and stingy pitching.

The death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts approach that has been required across the Majors this season -- one that has made Minnesota successful -- inherently requires consistent precision. The stacking of good at-bats leading to runs. Quality pitches followed by sound defense. Repeated over and over. If all packaged together, wins follow.

But Saturday’s 7-3 loss to the Royals illustrated the other side of that style of play. Lackluster execution, untimely mistakes and brief lapses of focus exposed the team.

Minnesota had moments of each, from a Jorge Polanco error with two outs in the fourth inning that led to two more runs to several two-out rallies that came up one hit short from results.

“We could’ve done a better job with some of it, whether it was how we were throwing the ball or defending,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I think it wasn’t necessarily the cleanest game that we had.”

The good news is if the 46 previous games are any indication, Saturday is more of an outlier than a trend.

Exhibit A: Archer
Entering the game, Chris Archer had allowed just three hits -- all singles -- in 27 at-bats with runners in scoring position. He allowed three such hits in that situation, including two doubles, on Saturday alone. Those hits led to four runs. And all three hits came with either two outs in the inning or two strikes in the count.

“I could have executed better,” Archer said. “I made maybe the right pitch, I just didn’t throw it in the right spot. They’re a contact-oriented team and they put the ball in play. And it sucks. I wish I could have made better pitches in those spots.”

Exhibit B: The frequently clutch offense
Entering Saturday, the Twins’ .273 batting average with runners in scoring position was third-best in the American League. In their previous nine games, seven of which were wins, the Twins hit .348 in those situations.

In the first inning, Byron Buxton doubled. That was followed by a pair of strikeouts from Luis Arraez and Carlos Correa and a Polanco flyout. Polanco failed to plate a runner from second base two additional times. But entering the game, Polanco was hitting .350 with runners in scoring position. Arraez was hitting .429. And in the ninth inning, the Twins loaded the bases and brought the tying run to the plate in Kyle Garlick, who hit a 379-foot flyout to center field.

“We could’ve scored some more runs, we didn’t. Garlick with a big swing, with some really good at-bats in the last inning gave us a chance but we just didn’t have enough today,” Baldelli said.

Exhibit C: The defense
Minnesota has largely cleaned up its defense after having the third-most errors in 2021 with 106. The untimely error by Polanco that allowed two runs to score in the fourth was his third of the season and Minnesota’s 22nd, roughly league average.

“I think our defense has been excellent, and I would continue to expect that,” Baldelli said. “You’re going to have games where the defense is not going to make every single play, and you’ve got to find ways to overcome it.”

The Twins couldn’t overcome the error or the series of other blunders Saturday. But Baldelli and his team remain confident it was more of an aberration than a sign of what’s to come.

“I think we just got beat out there today,” Baldelli said. “We play a lot of games; sometimes you’re going to get beat. It’s fine to say that.”