Offensive production has been incredily hard for the MInnesota Twins to come by lately, to a rather embarassing degree.
Minnesota is in the midst of an 0-for-26 hitless streak with runners in scoring positon and nothing seems to be going right. From Manuel Margot bunting with the bases loaded and two outs to Edouard Julien's being troublingly timid at the plate, there's growing cause for concern about just how bad Twins hitters are right now.
Not everything is gloom and doom, though.
Rocco Baldelli rather bluntly brushed off the early struggles by noting the Twins will eventually start generating some offense. It's obviousness that borders on arguing that the sun will rise in the morning, but it's not the wrong way to look at things less than ten games into the season.
Austin Martin tried his best to do exactly that and break up the sluggishness at the plate by slugging the first hit of his major league career. It was a small ray of sunshine in an other wise pitch black sky for Minnesota's offense.
Austin Martin's first career MLB hit was a double off Tyler Glasnow
In the bottom of the third inning, Martin stepped up to the plate and recorded both the first Twins hit of the night and the very first of his MLB career. Adding to how cool the moment was, Martin's belted a double off Tyler Glasnow, which is no easy task.
Welcome to the MLB hit club, @austin_martin99! pic.twitter.com/hoXWARyMHY
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) April 10, 2024
Welcome to the show -- again -- Austin Martin!
Martin was thought to be in the running for an Opening Day roster spot but was edged out when the Twins traded for Manuel Margot during Spring Training. It wasn't long before he filled the next-man-up role, getting called up after Royce Lewis hit the IL with a right quad strain.
He's been on the Twins roster since the second game of the season, first making his debut as a pinch runner before officially getting inserted into the starting lineup on March 31st. It wasn't until Tuesday that he notched his first major league hit and it was well worth the wait.
Now the question is whether the ball has started rolling for both Martin and the Twins. We saw something similar from Julien last season where his bat started to get hot after his first MLB hit and he's been viewed as an important piece of the offense ever since.
Julien's struggles are a microcosm of everything going wrong offensively for Minnesota, but we saw rookies breathe life into the team last year and perhaps Martin's first hit is a sign of things to come.