Minnesota Twins: Afterthoughts on Series Loss to Cleveland
Minnesota Twins: Afterthoughts. The thoughts and interesting stats from the previous games against the Cleveland Indians.
What started as a four-game series against the American League Champions became a rain-shortened no show by the Minnesota Twins offense.
Cleveland Indians pitching prevented the Twins from capitalizing on nearly all scoring chances.
In game one, the Twins collected nine hits but couldn’t push across the winning run in the ninth. With the bases loaded against Indians closer Cody Allen, Joe Mauer flew out to center field to end the game.
The inside fastball that tied up Mauer was uncharacteristic of him. Mauer, for the better part of his career, has laid off the inside fastball.
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It was a disappointing end to the first game of the series for the Twins.
In game two, the Twins had plenty of hits – 11 total – yet only two were extra-base hits. The Twins never recovered from the Indians’ three-run first inning as the Cleveland rolled to an 11-4 win.
Game three was rained out, leaving it up to Ervin Santana to salvage the series in game four.
The Twins scored a run on Trevor Bauer‘s balk and Jorge Polanco‘s sacrifice fly, but that’s it. Again the Twins mustered just two extra-base hits.
For the series, the Twins totaled six extra-base hits – five doubles and one home run.
As for hitting with runners in scoring position, the Twins didn’t fare much better.
Twins were 4-for-22 with runners in scoring position during the Cleveland series
— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) April 20, 2017
The Twins offense was able to score 15 runs in the recent Detroit Tigers series. They only managed to score half that total in three games against the Indians.
In general, the Twins’ starters have kept the team in the game. However, the Twins bats have lost the power displayed in the first couple of the series of the year.
As previously written, the Twins might benefit from adding a power bat to the active roster.
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Moving forward the Twins will need to find their power stroke and capitalize on more scoring chances. Twins batters have shown they can do that so far this season as evident by the team’s 46 RBI with runners in scoring position.