MINNEAPOLIS – When the Twins’ 6-5 loss to the Royals came to an end on Sunday afternoon, an unusual sight greeted the team’s players and staff: an off-day on the calendar.
Sunday ended a run of 17 consecutive games, a stretch that started with a trip to Boston, Chicago and Pittsburgh, and wrapped up with home series against the White Sox and Kansas City. It’s a credit to a weary bunch that they rallied for four runs in the ninth, but it wasn’t enough to salvage a series split.
With eight weeks until the Trade Deadline, the Twins sit at 30-37, on pace to win 73 games but currently just three games out of the last American League Wild Card spot. Even as things have been frustrating at times, and despite a roster currently without three of its biggest stars, there’s a lot to play for over the next two months – in hopes that there will continue to be a lot to play for over the final two months.
A gutty team with some obvious strengths and weaknesses begins a critical stretch when play resumes Tuesday. They open with the struggling but dangerous Tigers, the prohibitive AL Central favorite to start the year. Then they play four consecutive contenders: St. Louis, Texas, Arizona and the Dodgers.
Here are four keys to coming out of that sequence with playoff hopes intact.
Start getting on base again
This Twins team prides itself on grinding out at-bats, and for most of the year it’s been good at that. Lately, they’ve been less successful, however. Over the last 15 days, Minnesota ranks 28th in the Majors in on-base percentage and tied for 24th in walks, with the highest strikeout total of any team in baseball.
This isn’t an offense filled with high-average hitters, and while it has some pop, it’s not going to pepper the fences on a regular basis. They have to stick to their approach, grind out at-bats and see the sixth, seventh and eighth pitchers in opposing bullpens. And really, the approach still hasn’t been bad. In a strange way, the strikeout total is indicative of that. But they must do a better job of keeping the line moving.
“I don’t think it’s like a lot of swinging through pitches early,” said Josh Bell, who homered Sunday. “It’s swinging through late and then foul ball in scenarios at least for me personally. … Hopefully we can get things going, start squaring up the ball a little bit more. I think when that happens, pitchers get more and more afraid to come in zone and that’s when the walks start piling up.”
Get healthy
This is a big one, and there are some encouraging signs. Byron Buxton seems likely to play Tuesday. Mick Abel is getting closer to returning to the rotation. The hope all along has been that Kendry Rojas’ time on the shelf should be short.
Length and quality from the starters
At its best, this is a team built around its starting pitching. But with five starting candidates currently on the injured list, the rotation is stretched a bit thin. Joe Ryan continues to go deep into games, as does Zebby Matthews. But Taj Bradley has averaged fewer than five innings per start since returning from the injured list, the team is managing Connor Prielipp’s innings and the fifth spot is currently unoccupied.
“We’ve had people go back and forth,” said manager Derek Shelton. “You have to be a little fluid with your roster. We are limping pitching-wise to the end of this [stretch].”
Keep sorting out the bullpen
A unit that has been in flux basically all year has shown encouraging signs lately. Pitchers like Yoendrys Gómez, Andrew Morris and Anthony Banda have begun moving into higher leverage roles, and there’s a depth of power arms that was nowhere to be found earlier in the year. New acquisition Justin Lawrence looked good on Sunday.
But they’re still not all the way there. Shelton has not named a closer or any primary setup men, and he may not for a while. That’s fine; teams have succeeded with that kind of structure before. But the pitchers getting those opportunities must continue to run with them.