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Twins fall to Red Sox once again as frustration starts to mount

dane mizutani, pioneer press
·3 min read
8

After appearing to turn the corner last week with a series win over the Toronto Blue Jays, the Twins followed it up with a series sweep over the Milwaukee Brewers.

That suddenly feels like a lifetime ago.

The latest setback came on Tuesday night at Target Field as the Twins suffered a 10-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox. They have lost five of their past six games, and as their lead in the AL Central dwindles seemingly on a nightly basis, the struggles appear to be getting to manager Rocco Baldelli.

“We know it’s not good baseball,” Baldelli said. “It’s just not the baseball that we’re accustomed to from our team. I honestly don’t have a lot to say about it. We’ve got to muster something up that’s not currently there.”

Not surprisingly, starter Bailey Ober echoed those sentiments postgame, emphasizing that the Twins are trying to do everything in their power to get out of this slump.

“We’re a little frustrated,” Ober said. “When we win ballgames, things are good. When we’re losing ballgames, things aren’t good. It’s as simple as that.”

It’s hard to blame Ober too much, though, as the Twins continued the trend of not giving him enough run support.

He pretty much would’ve had to be perfect given the way his teammates swung the bats for most of the night. That wasn’t the case as Ober gave up a pair of solo home runs in the fourth inning, serving up a slider that Adam Duvall demolished, then hanging a fastball that Carlos Arroyo annihilated.

“I felt good out there,” Ober said. “I felt they put two good swings on me pretty much the whole game.”

Meanwhile, the Twins never really threatened to score in the early stages, their best chance coming in the fifth inning when Carlos Correa struck out swinging with Ryan Jeffers a mere 90 feet from home plate.

What appeared to be an insurance run for the Red Sox came in the sixth inning when Connor Wong singled to score Masataka Yoshida.

The floodgates opened in the seventh inning as reliever Brent Headrick came in for the Twins and promptly allowed the Red Sox to bust the game open. He couldn’t find a rhythm on the mound, giving up five runs as the fans that stuck around to vocalized their displeasure.

It got even worse for the Twins in the eighth inning as Yoshida crushed a two-run homer off reliever Oliver Ortega.

As the game mercifully wound to a close, Byron Buxton, Royce Lewis and Max Kepler hit home runs, giving the Twins something to build on amid a night to forget.

“This is baseball,” Lewis said. “Honestly, I was happy tonight to see everyone keep going and keep fighting and not give up at bats at the end of the game.”

It’s safe to say Baldelli didn’t share those same feelings as he appeared to be at a loss for words postgame as he searched for answers.

“I’m hoping this is just the worst day that we’re going to see right now in this stretch of games,” Baldelli said while acknowledge that hope isn’t necessarily a good plan in professional sports. “We’re capable of a lot more than we’re showing right now and I’m waiting to see it.”

In that same breath, Baldelli tried to push the narrative forward as best he could, noting that the Twins simply have too much talent on their roster to be defined by that particular loss to the Red Sox.

“I can’t talk about what I just saw in the game; I don’t think any of our guys want to sit there and actually try to put words to it,” Baldelli said. “It wasn’t good. There’s going to be better days ahead. We’ve got to keep our heads up and just keep playing.”

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