Can we get some healthy baseball players?
The Twins followed up last week’s relatively decent week with a dud this week, finishing 1-5, with the lone win coming against the Rangers. The pitching staff gave up double-digit runs in three games, while the bats failed to come alive in the clutch. The Twins were walked off twice in the series against the Astros, as Jhoan Duran was unable to hold a 1-1 tie in Game 2 and a 2-1 lead in Game 3. The team now gets to bounce back against two teams from the NL Central: the Reds and the Brewers.
The Past Week on Twinkie Town:
- Need to vent about the Twins? Or provide some reasons to calm down? Check out our Game Threads and join the conversation!
- In case you forgot what happened this past weekend, our Game Recaps are back as well!
- It looks like the Twins listened to Ben Jones as after his explanation on why the Jorge Alcala experiment has run its course, the team traded the embattled reliever to the Boston Red Sox.
- Zach Koenig revives a few old dance trends while looking back at the 2005 and 2015 Twins.
Elsewhere in Twins Territory:
- John Ke and Ben Jones, in the new episode of Twins Talk, try to find a silver lining from this past week. Spoiler alert: they don’t.
- Theo Tollefson at Zone Coverage analyzes why David Festa is seeing more success this season thanks to his secondaries.
- Dan Hayes at The Athletic provides a Twins trade deadline primer – with the important context that the Pohlads still own the team.
- Steve Schaeffer at MLB.com highlights Brooks Lee and his 15-game hitting streak.
In the World of Baseball:
- Detroit is still atop the AL with a 46-27 record, still 2.5 games clear of the 2nd place Yankees. After getting swept by the Astros, the Twins are now a half game out of the wild card race. The Mets are now alone atop the NL, with a 45-27 record, while the Cubs are right behind by 1.0 game.
- The Red Sox shocked the league, trading franchise player Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants for…well…not much. David Shoenfield at ESPN grades the trade, and I’m personally surprised about how high the grade was for the Sox.
- In more fun news, Shohei Ohtani will be pitching in a major league game for the first time in over two seasons! According to Sonja Chen at MLB.com, Ohtani will be used more as an opener for now, as he is not completely stretched out yet.
- All-Star Ballots are out now – vote for your favorite Twins!