Jhoan Duran called out Twins coaches after giving up walk-off home run to Guardians
By Josh Hill
After pulling off a 12-game winning streak and roaring back into the AL Central race, things have been decidedly less fun over the last week for the Minnesota Twins.
Sunday saw the Twins lose their fifth straight game, which doubled as back-to-back series sweeps. The New York Yankees boxed Minnesota's ears during the week while the Cleveland Guardians continued its undefeated streak over the weekend.
The loss on Sunday was particularly bad, as it featured the second game-winning home run that star closer Jhoan Duran gave up in a loss. He allowed a home run to Jose Ramirez in the eighth inning on Friday and was on the wrong side of Will Brennan's walk-off on Sunday.
What made the walk-off on Sunday worse than the home run Duran allowed on Friday was where he placed blame after the game.
Jhoan Duran had some concerning comments about Twins coaching staff after allowing walk-off to Guardians
Duran threw eight off-speed pitches during Sunday's appearance despite the fact that he has one of the hardest fastballs in the league. He threw just five of them to Gurdians batters, with the walk-off coming on an off-speed pitch he claims he didn't want to throw.
After the game, Duran implied that a mound visit from Pete Maki led to the decision to throw Brennan an off-speed pitch that he proceeded to send over the outfield wall. It's not just the fact that Duran called his coaches out that is notable, it's the way he did it.
“The first time, [the curveball] was on my own,” Duran said, via the Star Tribune. “This time, it’s not my decision. I thought [Brennan] wasn’t good with fastballs. I’m an employee here, so whatever I need to throw, I need to throw it.”
Yikes.
That comment seems pretty out of character for Duran, but it also sounds like the boiling over of an otherwise uncharacteritically bad series for him. The team as a whole has been in a slump since last weekend, as a win over the Toronto Blue Jays on May 12th was the last time the team was able to muster up a victory.
Getting swept by the Yankees was bad enough, but getting roughed up by the Guardians -- who have yet to lose to the Twins this year -- stings even worse. After pulling themselves back into the division race, Minnesota has fallen back into third place and are just a game above Detroit and falling even further into a hole.
We saw what this team is capable of during its winning streak, but it seems the team has fallen into another valley and it's clear that nobody in the clubhouse is riding good vibes anymore.
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