MINNEAPOLIS -- Ever since Miguel Sanó came off the injured list last Wednesday, the Twins have harped on one thing, over and over again: He needs to mash hittable fastballs in order to succeed.

Coming off the bench in the seventh inning in Friday night’s series opener against the A’s, Sanó had a chance to show his progress against Burch Smith, a fastball-heavy reliever, with a pair in scoring position.

Instead, he struck out on four pitches -- all fastballs. One batter later, Luis Arraez hit a sharp line drive -- but right at Oakland center fielder Ramón Laureano. So it goes for the 2021 Twins, whose season-long struggles to hit with men in scoring position dragged on with a 1-for-6 performance in such situations in their 6-1 loss to the A’s at Target Field.

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“You would think of these games as one-off games, but we’ve had too many of them to consider them one-off games,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We have to go into a game and do it. No one wants to have to talk about the same story over and over again, and that’s what’s frustrating about it.”

Sanó returning to form is more important now than ever -- for both the slugger and his scuffling team, which dropped to an MLB-worst 12-24 after its fifth straight loss and eighth in its last nine games.

Finding themselves in another hole, 5-1, after starter Matt Shoemaker allowed a season-high three homers, the Twins needed to punch back in the seventh, when Willians Astudillo led off with a bloop double down the right-field line and Max Kepler followed with a solid single through the shift.

Following Andrelton Simmons’ soft grounder to move runners to second and third, the Twins sent up Sanó to hit for backup catcher Ben Rortvedt instead of Mitch Garver, another big bat available off the bench.

Entering Friday’s game, Smith had thrown fastballs on 70.2 percent of his pitches -- and nothing overpowering, either, with an average velocity of 93.4 mph.

That’s exactly the situation in which the Twins need Sanó, who slugged .729 off fastballs in 2019 and .575 in ‘20. That’s the situation for which they’ve tried to prepare him, with measured usage in games while he has worked on his swing mechanics and hit off the velocity machine.

“There’s only one way to get Miggy going right now, and it’s to give him some shots out there when we think it’s a good opportunity for him,” Baldelli said.

After a mound meeting to discuss their plan, Smith and the A’s threw Sanó four straight heaters. None exceeded 92.3 mph.

Sanó took one for a strike, then swung at the next one. That one was center-cut, over the heart of the plate. That’s the pitch he needed to hit.

“That’s the one we’re really focusing on,” Baldelli said. “That’s the pitch he has to get to over the course of that at-bat to lead to real damage. Because, as we know, when he finds the barrel -- doesn’t even really have to be on the barrel -- when he just finds the big part of the bat and puts it in play that way, good things happen very quickly for Miggy.”

Instead, Sanó fouled it off, straight back. He took another out of the zone and then chased upstairs for a strikeout. Following the game, his season line stood at .119/.280/.209.

Though Sanó started his first four games off the IL, Astudillo has made three of the last four starts at first base as the Twins continue to talk about keeping Sanó on a plan to get his timing back against fastballs. It has helped the Twins that Astudillo has hit well, with a double on Friday raising his average to .316 and OPS to .798.

But Astudillo doesn’t have Sanó’s upside with the bat, and with top prospect Alex Kirilloff’s immediate future still uncertain as he progressed to hitting off a tee on Friday to test out his sprained right wrist, there’s still time for Sanó to get right in these situations -- but maybe not much of it.

“Miguel rides some monster waves in what he does out on the field,” Baldelli said on Wednesday. “I’ve seen him go from struggling a little bit to being the best hitter that you’ll ever see for a long stretch of time.”

Friday’s matchup didn’t work out in Sanó’s favor, but the Twins hope he can help unlock their offense with continued adjustments. Right now, this offense needs that.