It's no secret what Twins are missing despite remarkable stretch

TAMPA -- It feels nitpicky and almost cruel to say that there is something lacking on a team that has won 16 of its past 20 games.

But during the Twins’ tremendous run, it’s become clear that something is missing. It was evident during Monday’s 7-2 loss to the Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

“You've got to score to win,” manager Rocco Baldelli said after the game.

To be fair, Baldelli was complimentary of his team’s at-bats, and there were signs of a potential breakthrough coming for one particularly important bat in Minnesota’s lineup. But the bottom line is the Twins have scored just 34 runs in their past 10 games. They have won six of those games on the back of a pitching staff that entered Monday with an MLB-best 2.71 ERA this month.

However, those arms can only hold up for so long. Starting pitcher Chris Paddack did his part, delivering his ninth consecutive start with at least five innings pitched and three or fewer earned runs allowed.

But he received zero support. The Twins were held off the scoreboard into the seventh inning until Carlos Correa cracked a no-doubt, two-run homer to cut the team’s deficit to 3-2. Even after the Twins’ bullpen -- which has also been fantastic in May -- allowed four runs in the eighth to put the game out of reach, it was still worth reflecting on the offense’s missed opportunities in the early and middle innings while the game was still scoreless.

The table was set for Ryan Jeffers in the third after back-to-back singles with one out from Christian Vázquez and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. that put runners on the corners. But Jeffers tapped a splitter back to Rays starter Zack Littell, who started a 1-4-3 double play to end the threat. Two innings later, Kody Clemens' leadoff single was erased on another twin killing, this one off the bat of Willi Castro.

“We need to do more than what we did, but it just didn't work for us offensively today,” Baldelli said.

The solutions are fairly obvious. Although the contributions from unsung players such as Clemens and Ty France have provided huge boosts in recent days, this offense needs Byron Buxton, who has been sidelined since May 15 with a concussion.

He is getting close to a return -- he has made the trip to Florida and was in the team’s clubhouse Monday -- but the absence of a dynamic player who has 10 homers and an .834 OPS in 41 games this year looms large right now. Minnesota is also without powerful outfielder Matt Wallner, who is on a rehab assignment at Triple-A and could be activated by the end of the week.

“Buck and Wallner, of course we're going to look forward to these guys getting back,” Baldelli said. “They're great players and they do a lot of great things. Buck should be back pretty soon. That'll be real nice when it happens. But until then, we've got to come together and figure it out as a team, put good at-bats together. I don't think we were that far off tonight, but we needed a little more.”

Royce Lewis is another player capable of carrying this offense, and although his 0-for-3 night dropped his average to .148 and left him hitless in his previous 20 at-bats, he had two swings that showed he may not be far off from getting on track.

In his final two plate appearances, Lewis hit two balls with an exit velocity of at least 101 mph. They each traveled at least 380 feet. The expected batting average on those batted balls was .550 and .770. But they both ended up as just long flyouts to center field. It was a similar result to a similar batted ball from Lewis in Saturday's game against the Royals at Target Field: 101.6 mph off the bat. It flew 391 feet. Expected batting average of .700 -- only to be caught on the track.

“I think he's putting it together,” Baldelli said of Lewis. “He's just probably a tick off the barrel on some of those swings, and that's why maybe they're hanging up a little bit.”

While the Twins are missing key offensive components and just missing when they do make solid contact, Monday’s game turned on one sweeper in the sixth inning from Twins reliever Brock Stewart that the Rays’ Jonathan Aranda did not miss. That one pitch, which Stewart left hanging over the middle of the plate, resulted in a three-run homer that put the Twins in a hole that they couldn’t hit their way out of.

“I think 10 times out of 10, if I do execute [that pitch], then the result is good for me,” Stewart said. “Just terribly executed. Didn't execute it at all.”