Ever since sweeping a doubleheader on Saturday against the Detroit Tigers, the Minnesota Twins have failed to win a game. Not only that, but they've lost in ways that shouldn't be happening.
The Twins were swept by Baltimore on Wednesday, dropping the team to 6-11 on the season and continuing to call into question just what in the heck is going on. Despite another solid start by Pablo Lopez, Minnesota couldn't muster up much offense and even when it did get something going it wasn't enough.
Austin Martin tried strapping the team on his back late in the game by making a clutch defensive play to keep it a one-score game before batting in the tying run a half inning later. Kyle Farmer finally woke up and knocked Martin in to take the lead but the usually reliable bullpen gave up that lead shortly after.
Once again it was the offense taking most of the blame, with Twins manager Rocco Baldelli calling his hitters out after yet another loss.
Rocco Baldelli calls out Twins offense after another excellent start by Pablo Lopez
Aside from one bad pitch in the first inning, which resulted in a Gunnar Henderson solo home run, Pablo Lopez was pretty fantastic. He pitched six innings and allowed just two hits while striking out seven, but it was that one earned run that ended up being costly.
Part of that is on Lopez, who can't give up that early lead, but most of the loss falls on the Twins' in ability to offer any sort of run support. That's what Baldelli pointed to while criticizing Minnesota's offense -- or the lack thereof.
"We have to finish the game out," Rocco said. "We didn't expand that lead, and that's the name of the game in a lot of ways and we had a tough time doing that. All it takes is a swing one way or another at the point to win or lose the game."
He was asked about pulling Pablo after the sixth and noted that he felt good turning to the bullpen, which has been mostly reliable this season, in that spot. Steven Okert allowed a game-tying home run a few pitches into his relief appearance but Rocco redirected his frustration toward Minnesota's inability to score more runs.
"They were held down for much of the game, you're giving yourself a really good chance to win. We know offensively we have to do better. We have to put runs on the board, it's really difficult to win when you're scoring only a few runs," Baldelli said. "We score more runs, we're going to create some separation and we win these games. We play these games and we're ahead late and we lose it. That can be frustrating."
"We know offensively we have to do better. ... That's what we're going to spend our time on."
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) April 17, 2024
Hear from #MNTwins manager Rocco Baldelli after the series finale against the Orioles. pic.twitter.com/Y9pK0bc78k
This has been a common theme for most of the last year. The Twins slumped hard over the summer last season, and a lack of firepower at the plate is once again wasting what should be quality starts.
It's not all gloom-and-doom, as injuries have played a major factor in why things are going sideways so early. Royce Lewis, Max Kepler, and Carlos Correa are all on the IL which doesn't help, but that shouldn't be a crutch. Kyle Farmer was brought back for over $6 million this winter and was hitting .097 coming into Wednesday. Matt Wallner, who the Twins were relying on for power, was so bad that he's already been sent down to St. Paul.
There are things outside of Minnesota's control holding them back, but injuries can't be blamed for everything. Wednesday loss shouldn't have happened, but it's the type of game teams stuck in an offensive rut find a way to lose and that's exactly what we saw out of the Twins in what is now a fourth consecutive loss.