Rocco Baldelli pulled Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton after four innings in the Minnesota Twins’ 9-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Monday. The loss dropped the Twins to 0-4 for the fifth time since they moved to Minnesota in 1961. It was the earliest Correa remembers a manager pulling him from a game.
“It’s not about losing the games. It’s about the way we’re playing collectively right now,” Correa said. “We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to make adjustments quick because the last thing you want is to go two weeks, and this keeps dragging.”
A day after the St. Louis Cardinals swept the Twins, the White Sox piled on. Chris Paddack matched career-highs for most runs (nine), earned runs (nine), walks (four), and homers (three) in 3⅓ innings. Rocco Baldelli went into triage mode with the game out of reach, hoping a full-strength team can snap its four-game losing streak before they leave Chicago.
“Last thing I want to do is pull anyone out of a game in the fourth inning,” Rocco Baldelli said. “The score was 9-0. To keep them ready and in the lineup going forward, that’s what we have to do.”
Minnesota’s 12-27 finish to last year has bled into this season. Despite making changes in spring training to reverse their fortune, they have lost eight straight games going back to last year. It’s a long season. The Twins play their first game at home on Thursday.
Still, it’s getting late early in Twins Territory. It was Minnesota’s second straight blowup after Bailey Ober gave up eight runs in 2⅔ innings in Game 3 against the Cardinals.
“I think we’re getting a little bit in our own way,” Baldelli said. “You start thinking a lot when things don’t go the way you want. Today was obviously a very difficult ballgame from the very beginning. Two in a row makes it probably twice as hard to deal with it.”
The Twins started 7-13 last season before Ryan Jeffers started throwing the rally sausage around the clubhouse. Minnesota reeled off 12 straight wins beginning on April 22. However, Comcast took them off television on May 1, meaning most fans didn’t see the end of the win streak.
Minnesota was 17-13 when FanDuel Sports Net went dark. On July 29, they returned to TV on a higher-paid tier. The New York Mets beat Minnesota 15-2 to drop them to 58-47 that day. They finished 82-80. Therefore, they went 47-34 when they were off Comcast and finished 24-33.
It’s hard to blame fans for associating this year’s team with the team they saw last year. A fan who only watches the team on Comcast saw them go 41-46 and blow a double-digit lead in the wild-card race to drop out of the playoffs.
A new year was supposed to be a clean start for the Twins. They changed things up in spring training and are on Twins.TV now. Instead, Twins.TV kicked things off with a Cleveland Guardians promo, St. Louis swept them to start the season, and the White Sox continued their losing streak. Vegas projects the Cardinals to win 76.5 games this year, the lowest projected total in 17 years. The Pale Hose lost 121 games last season.
Losing four straight games doesn’t mean the season is over. The Twins lost five straight before their 12-game win streak last year. They also had a seven-game and a five-game losing streak during their 70-56 start, which gave them above a 90% chance to win the playoffs in August. Minnesota didn’t fall apart last year because it had losing streaks during the season. It missed the playoffs because ownership cut payroll, and they didn’t have enough depth at the end of the year.
Two years ago, the Twins had two five-game losing streaks and one four-game losing streak and only finished with 87 wins. However, they still won their first playoff series since 2002 and created a foundation they could have built off without the payroll slash.
It’s no fun losing to a team that employs Lars Nootbaar, who the Cardinals found between the 100 Grand and Whatchamacallit in the vending machine. Nor should any lineup allow Martín Pérez to no-hit them for six innings. Still, the clock hasn’t struck midnight yet. Hopefully, people will want to tune in by the time the Twins are on free TV in mid-April.
