Offense remains 'in a little bit of a rut'

In the dugout across the field on Friday night, the Twins saw a team and an offense rejuvenated by the addition of Nelson Cruz, who served as the finishing piece of a Tampa Bay lineup that has been one of the most productive in the Majors since the designated hitter swapped teams in a July 22 trade.

And though the Twins had their first winning month of the season in August, the lack of the former cornerstone of their lineup has been more apparent than ever over the last week of offensive struggles. That was on display again in a 5-3 loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field, marking the seventh time in the last eight games Minnesota’s offense has been held to three or fewer runs.

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“I don't think there's a collective reason why we've been in a little bit of a rut,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I think it's hard to argue that we have been in a little bit of a rut. I think you have to look down, though, at each player and kind of figure out just where each guy is at, and I think it would be a little bit different for every one of these guys.”

Amid the overall slowdown of the lineup, Jorge Polanco has continued to produce, starting with a solo homer off Michael Wacha in the first inning, his 25th of the season, moving him into second place among single-season totals for switch-hitters in Twins history. He took advantage of Austin Meadows’ misplay in left field for an RBI double in the eighth inning to secure his ninth game of the season with multiple extra-base hits.

Still, after Max Kepler led off the second with a double, 11 Twins in a row went down from the second to fifth innings before Ryan Jeffers’ solo blast got Minnesota’s offense back on the board. Polanco’s double provided an eighth-inning punch, but Josh Donaldson’s inning-ending groundout stopped the Twins short of a full comeback.

In a sign of what Baldelli means by different players being in different places at the plate, it should also help the Twins to get Byron Buxton going again. The center fielder is mired in a 2-for-27 slump with 10 strikeouts and one walk since he returned Aug. 27 from a two-month stint on the injured list.

“Some of these guys have been hot as can be, and it's hard to sustain that for a while,” Baldelli said. “Some guys are just getting going. We have guys coming back off the IL. We have guys that are all in different spots. I felt like we were clicking pretty well for a while. We've got to find that again."

Considering all of that, right-hander Randy Dobnak faced a tough task in holding Tampa Bay’s potent offense at bay in his first Major League start in more than two months after missing time with a right middle finger strain. Some of that rust showed in the second and third innings, when he allowed five runs on six hits by leaving the ball up in the zone too much, turning would-be grounders into line drives to the outfield.

It’s tough to fault him for needing a physical adjustment halfway through his start, following a three-run second and two-run third inning by the Tampa Bay offense, considering he made only two rehab starts as part of his recovery from his first injury in his playing career -- all the way back to when he first started playing baseball as a child. Once he internalized the feeling of keeping his body level instead of falling off to the side, he was back in form.

He buckled down to retire the final 15 batters he faced in a seven-inning start, with the encouraging note that he got 16 of his 21 outs on ground balls -- as he does when he’s pitching efficiently and effectively. If he’d figured it out earlier and the Twins had gotten a bit more offensive help, the ability of Dobnak and Ralph Garza Jr. to retire the final 18 Tampa Bay hitters to come to the plate might have proved more decisive.

“Overall, I thought after those two innings I located my pitches a little bit better, and was getting the results that I wanted,” Dobnak said.

Particularly in the wake of Kenta Maeda’s Tommy John surgery on Wednesday, the Twins’ offense will have to be the foundation of any possible resurgence in 2022, since the club will be in dire need of pitching throughout the rotation and bullpen this offseason.

The Twins’ offense actually ranked 11th in MLB in wRC+ as a team entering Friday’s game, in the top half of the league, but that has been down to a 93 wRC+ since the July 30 Trade Deadline -- 20th in baseball. Buxton’s return could help -- but this offensive group also has plenty to show in September to prove it has the potential for the Twins to build on.