Umpire scorecard proves Twins were getting screwed over on Saturday vs. Guardians

It was a pretty bad weekend of baseball for the Minnesota Twins in just about every way imaginable.

Minnesota's bats went dead quiet in Saturday's 3-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians, a game that the team should have won but instead racked up an utterly embarassing statline. The Twins will begin their series against the Dodgers on Monday in the midst of an 0-for-24 hitless streak with RISP.

The team didn't have a chance to fix things on Sunday due to the game being postponed. Bad weather is the official reason, but it's also possible that God didn't want to see the Twins burp up all over themeslves at the plate on the Seventh Day.

Something needs to change, as the Twins offense looks painfully like the one that slumped hard for most of last summer. Stranding runners and striking out at a brutal clip is a good way to lose games, and it's no surprise that Minnesota is limping out of the gate with a 3-4 record.

A series against the Dodgers is going to be truly humbling experience.

While the Twins were bad all on their own this weekend, some bad umpiring added to the frustration. Benanan Miller was behind home plate on Saturday and had some mind-bogglingly bad call. Hitting coach David Popkins was tossed for arguing balls-and-strikes, and the umpire scorecard after the game proved he had a pretty good gripe.

Umpire scorecard for Twins-Guardians game on Saturday is absolutely brutal

Bad offense is one thing, and the Twins need to wear a crown of shame for how putrid and timid they are at the plate. Minnesota has left the bases loaded at least once in each of its last three games, including the infamous Manuel Margot bunting incident.

That being said, it's hard to argue that Cleveland wasn't bailed out big time by some bad calls.

To the surprise of nobody who watched Miller's strike zone, the Guardians received an umpiring advantage of about 2.24 runs in a game they beat the Twins by two runs.

It's bad enough on paper, but to actually watch some of the calls he made is an entirely different experience -- one that Twins fans would like to forget.

There's no question the inconsistent strike zone impacted how bad the Twins were at the plate on Saturday. It's entirely on the team for making bad decisions and taking low percentage swings, but it's impossible to not place at least some of the blame for how confused they looked on Miller's bad calls.

Willi Castro had an at-bat late in the game with the bases loaded that seemed to be an example of this. He hacked at a few bad pitches that were out of the strike zone but had been getting called as strikes earlier in the game.

Had Miller not been so bad behind the plate, perhaps the Twins hitters would have settled in and rallied.

That being said, Minnesota's offensive struggles go back to the 11-0 blowout loss to Kansas City last weekend. Miller was had some bad calls against Cleveland as well but that didn't stop the Guardians from finding a way to win.

It's added frustration that the umpiring was so bad because if one thing is clear it's that the Twins don't need any help looking downright awful all on their own.

More Minnesota Twins news and rumors