The Minnesota Twins had two men on and two outs when Alex Kirilloff stepped up to bat in the sixth inning. The Toronto Blue Jays had cut their deficit from 6-1 to 6-4 an inning earlier. Cavan Biggio scored when Carlos Correa failed to turn a double-play to end the fifth. Then Matt Chapman chased Louie Varland by hitting a two-run home run to cut the lead to two. But the Twins had to feel Kirilloff could extend the lead in the sixth. He has recovered from his wrist injury and is hitting .290/.413/.450 this year.
Thomas Hatch gets Kirlloff looking on a changeup, strike one. Kirilloff swings and misses at an 89 mph cutter, strike two. Kirilloff briefly steps out of the box and doesn’t call timeout. Strike three. Kirilloff and the Twins contend that Kirilloff was “alert to the pitcher at the 8-second mark,” as the new MLB rule mandates. Umpire Brian Walsh felt otherwise. “It’s a bold call,” Rocco Baldelli told reporters after the game. “I mean, I can’t agree with that, and I think the Blue Jays are walking off the field thinking they got away with something.”
Baldelli deployed Emilio Pagán to face Toronto’s 7-8-9 hitters in the ninth inning. Alejandro Kirk and Santiago Espinal led off with back-to-back singles, and Biggio took Pagán deep to take a lead the Jays wouldn’t relinquish. Just like that, Minnesota had squandered a 5-1 lead and the opportunity to salvage their six-game road trip. The Tampa Bay Rays swept the Twins before they entered Canada, dropping their record below .500. They return to Target Field for a 10-game homestand in first place. However, they are hardly in command of an AL Central that briefly had five losing teams in it.
Minnesota’s Game 3 loss in Toronto reflected their season as a whole. Perhaps Varland gets out of the fifth if Correa turns the double-play. Maybe Kirilloff extends the lead if he takes a timeout, or Walsh doesn’t give him a time violation. If Jhoan Durán was available and Jorge López was right, then Baldelli probably doesn’t turn to Pagán. Pause time at various points in the season, and it appears the Twins are in command. Stop time in the fifth inning, and it looks like they’ll leave Toronto with a 3-3 road trip. “We had a good series overall here,” Baldelli said, trying to put a positive spin on the Blue Jays series. “Knowing that we had the lead late, it’s hard. Those are hard games to walk away from when you don’t hold onto a game you should have.”
It was a microcosm of their season. Freeze time at various points in the season, and they appear to be on the right track. The Twins took the season series from the New York Yankees for the first time since 2001. They also took the season series from the Houston Astros. Minnesota had a 31-27 record after taking two games from the Cleveland Guardians on June 2. But they lost the next two to Cleveland, and Tampa swept them. Suddenly the division lead didn’t seem so safe. Furthermore, the Chicago White Sox got off to a 14-28 start, placing them nine games behind the Twins in the Central. But the Pale Hose have gone 13-7 since then, and they are only 4.5 games back in the division.
The Twins are failing to capitalize on their opportunities this year. They play in a weak division but can’t run away with it. After Sunday’s loss, their 33-33 record leads the AL Central. The Boston Red Sox are 33-33, and they are last in the AL East. Minnesota has its best pitching staff in recent memory, but they haven’t had the offensive firepower to capitalize on it. They spent $300 million on Correa and Byron Buxton, who have struggled at the plate. To bolster their rotation, the Twins traded Luis Arraez to the Miami Marlins for Pablo López. Arraez is chasing .400; López has a 4.25 ERA (99 ERA+), his worst numbers since his second season in the league.
Not all hope is lost. López is showing signs of improvement recently, and Correa has started to heat up. But they need to ensure they don’t fall behind their competition in the AL’s other divisions. It’s meaningful to take season series from the Yankees and Houston, given that those are the last two teams to eliminate them in the playoffs. But Tampa leads the AL East, and the Texas Rangers are ahead in the AL West. The Rays just swept the Twins; Minnesota doesn’t play the Rangers until late August. Every game and every series reveals new information. Things that seemed certain earlier this year may have been an aberration. Things that seem inevitable now may be long forgotten come September.
There is a lot of season left. The Twins still have 94 games to find consistency. But they’ve been caught in a time loop through 66 games. Occasionally, they’ll beat one of the best teams in the junior circuit. Sometimes they run up the score. But they often have trouble scoring, and they’re capable of losing to clubs going nowhere. Correa has struggled offensively, but his defense has been good this year. Unfortunately, he made an error on a double-play. Kirilloff is one of Minnesota’s best hitters, but he got called out on strikes for not being in the box on time. Pagán probably isn’t pitching in a high-leverage situation if López is pitching like he did in the first month of the season.
The baseball season changes as time goes on. Minnesota needs to make sure they are, too.
