There was no mystery as to what produced the Twins sudden show of competence with a five-game winning streak over the past week. There also was no puzzle as to what caused that minor uptick to come to an end Tuesday afternoon at Target Field.
Pitching. It s always pitching.
The Twins took a 10-0 loss against the Mariners last Tuesday that dropped them to a season-low 15 games under .500 at 26-41.
The Seattle slaughter also raised the team earned run average to 5.05, which stood 28th among 30 MLB teams. That was quite the fall off a cliff for a team that was comfortably fourth in the 2020 mini-season with a 3.58 ERA.
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Nick Gordon has joined storied company.
With a hit and two stolen bases in the Twins win over the Astros on Saturday, Gordon became just the second player in Twins history to garner more than 10 hits and three stolen bases in his first 10 major league games. Kirby Puckett first did it in 1984. He s had great at-bats throughout. Obviously running around the bases, getting great jumps. He s shown great instincts out on the field, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of Gordon. And he s performed. He s done it, and he s done it with good energy, and it s been really, really fun on our end to see him do it.
Evaluations of the deal that sent him to the Los Angeles Dodgers tended to look backwards, though, listing all of the great things Mookie had already done while focusing less on what he might be in the future. And while it s too early to make any definitive determinations on that front, the 2021 season has allowed for one possibility that would significantly alter our perception of shipping him west.
He s starting to break down.
There s growing concern about Betts in Los Angeles during this most un-Mookie-like season. He s hitting just .247 with five homers through 44 games. He has missed time with a sore back, a sore shoulder, and most recently, impaired vision caused by an unspecified allergic reaction.