Minnesota Twins: What to watch for against the Seattle Mariners

What is going on with Martin Perez?

While the Twins bullpen has been hogging all of the troubled headlines on the mound, Martin Perez is veering dangerously close to sharing some of the doom and gloom. In his past five starts, Perez has gone 2-2 with a 5.25 ERA after starting the season 5-0 with a 2.83 ERA in his first eight appearances (six starts).

While wins and ERA can be deceiving at times, there are other numbers that indicate that the 28-year old is struggling. In his past five starts, he has failed to make it to the sixth inning four times and opposing hitters are slashing .276/.366/.815 in that time frame. Mix in 11 runs allowed in his past two starts and it’s almost time to start wondering what is going on with Perez.

The good news is that in his last start only two of his six charged runs were earned runs and with a struggling team such as Seattle coming to Target Field, it could be a chance to channel his May 17 start where he went 6.2 innings allowing three runs on four hits, two walks and seven strikeouts. If Perez can get back on track, it could mean good things in the future, otherwise the Twins efforts to improve their starting rotation may have to intensify.