The Minnesota Twins are in survival mode right now. Following a 15-inning marathon against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, the Houston Astros beat them 17-6 on Wednesday. It completes a sweep that included 7-2 and 16-8 wins on Monday and Tuesday.
“You could say they got us at the right time, coming off of the long game and all that, and Miggy being out for a couple days,” said Twins manager Paul Molitor, referring to Miguel Sano’s illness that kept him out of the lineup again today, “but the reality is that they’re a hot team that’s playing really loose, and we actually got a fairly good draw with their rotation, so we had opportunities.”
Brad Peacock gave up four earned runs in 4.2 innings on Monday. Mike Fiers went six innings Tuesday, but David Paulino was chased in four innings today.
The Twins bullpen, however, imploded once again today, in large part because of fatigued arms. Ryan Pressly and Tyler Duffey gave up six runs without recording an out. Jason Wheeler and backup catcher Chris Gimenez, making his third relief appearance this year, gave up three each as well.
Pressly was sent to Triple-A and Wheeler, who made his major league debut yesterday, was designated for assignment after the game.
The silver lining, frankly, in this game was that Brandon Kintzler, Taylor Rogers and Matt Belisle didn’t get work and should be fresh. Duffey also only threw 11 pitches today and should be available tomorrow.
“We still have some guys that took advantage of the last couple days — Kintzler and Rogers and Belisle,” said Molitor. “I’m hoping Duff’s available tomorrow, I got him in there for a short stint today, and then we’ll add a couple fresh guys tomorrow that will be on the peripheral of giving us some protection.”
On the peripheral of giving us some protection. That’s honesty right there.
Molitor has handled this mini-crisis matter-of-factly. The truth is as much as he’s been ridiculed for his bullpen usage, fair or unfair, he’s also dealing with a lack of personnel.
“There are times along the way where you’re gonna push the right buttons, and times you’re gonna push the wrong buttons. I hit a lot of wrong buttons here, at least in terms of how things ended up,” said Molitor.
Asked if there were any moves he’d have back, he said: “No. No.
“Wrong in terms of they don’t work out. I don’t have any regrets on choosing who and when.”
The team has “dimmed the lights” on Pressly and hope a stint in Rochester is a rest for him. Only so much could be expected from Wheeler, Drew Rucinski and Buddy Boshers. Nick Burdi, a hard-throwing reliever that was supposed to be close to major league ready, is injured. Perhaps fireballer J.T. Chargois or 2015 first-round pick Tyler Jay can help the pitching depth.
If not, this is a taxed bullpen going into series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Seattle Mariners and San Francisco Giants. The upside, however, is that the Twins are 14-5 on the road versus 12-18 at home this year.
“The road, it could be good,” said Molitor. “I don’t know how to measure those things. I still think that we’re gonna be a good team at home too, it just hasn’t worked out particularly well here through the first 50 games.”
The bullpen also isn’t the only issue with the Twins right now:
Minnesota had a team meeting today, and most of the message was to focus on the positives. They’re still in the thick of things in the AL Central. They had a winning month. Joe Mauer finished May with a .346/.442/.531 line and Miguel Sano and Kennys Vargas should fill out the middle of the lineup soon enough.
Still, you can tell the losing is wearing on the players a bit.
Eddie Rosario went 3-for-5, hitting his second home run in five days:
Jason Castro’s two-run homer in the sixth brought the game within one run, 6-5, but a six-run seventh cemented the game for Houston:
“We’re gonna keep plodding along,” said Molitor.
“We talked this morning about perspective, and it’s easy to draw out the negatives after you’ve kind of had another homestand that’s come and went without much success, it’s been a little bit of a pattern, and I hope the road pattern continues as well. But these guys know … we have enough people that have played enough seasons to know that there’s gonna be the hiccups.
“The road gets rough at times, and you try to get it on track as quickly as you can and recover, and we’ll see how we play out west. I think it will be a little bit of a test for us, coming off this homestand, no doubt about that.”
