3 ways Twins can right ship with reigning AL champs on tap

MINNEAPOLIS -- If they weren’t already there, the Twins are officially in a rut. Wednesday afternoon’s 5-3 loss to the Mariners made it 11 defeats in 13 games, and four straight series lost. It doesn’t get any easier when the reigning American League champion Blue Jays come to town for four games over the weekend at Target Field.

Here are three ways Minnesota can get back in the win column.

1. Throw strikes, especially late

The winning rally for Seattle on Wednesday started with a walk. The rally that broke open Tuesday’s game started with a walk. The Mets’ two go-ahead rallies last week in Queens featured critical two-out walks.

The Twins’ bullpen has some pitchers who absolutely can be effective, but very few who have overwhelming stuff. They have to locate in order to get hitters out. Eric Orze hadn’t walked a batter in more than two weeks before issuing a four-pitch leadoff walk to Randy Arozarena in the ninth on Wednesday, and that set up the rest of the rally, including Cole Young’s soft ground-ball single through a drawn-in infield to put the Mariners ahead.

“A situation like that, you can’t walk the leadoff guy, let alone on four pitches,” Orze said. “You have to be competitive in zone and make them earn it. The couple of base hits afterward, that’s obviously where the difference came. I have to execute.”

2. Get one big hit, especially early

This Minnesota team prides itself on playing 27 outs, and it’s true that this club has been hard to kill. The Twins keep coming at you, getting baserunners, coming back when they’re down. But over their recent slide, they’ve had a terrible time getting the key hit in RBI opportunities, especially early. They missed key chances early on Tuesday and Wednesday, chances not only to take big leads, but maybe to chase Seattle starters.

That can then lead to tense at-bats later, as well as allowing opponents to deploy their bullpens the way they want to, rather than having to navigate four, five, six innings in a game.

“I thought we did a good job with our approach,” manager Derek Shelton said. “You saw two really good starting pitchers right there. That was dominant stuff on both sides and not a ton of hard contact. We had opportunities.”

3. Starters keep it up

If there’s one thing to like about how things have been going lately, it’s the starting rotation. Taj Bradley and Joe Ryan both turned in excellent outings after rough ones on the road trip. Connor Prielipp has thrived in place of Mick Abel. Bailey Ober continues to find ways to succeed with diminished velocity. Simeon Woods Richardson has struggled in recent starts, but overall, the Twins’ starters are keeping them in games.

With Bradley on Wednesday, he showed exactly why the club is so excited about him. He struck out batters on four different pitches, showing an especially nasty curveball, while his velocity ticked back up to where it was in his first couple of starts. If Bradley and Ryan in particular keep pitching like they did this week, wins will follow.

“I think I had command of my offspeed early, and I feel like I could pitch backwards, pitch forwards, and I felt like I had good command of the fastball,” Bradley said. “Working it in and out and getting it down and having them set their eyes a little lower to where the curveball worked, the slider worked, and the splitter worked.”