The Minnesota Twins took two games in a hard-fought series with the St. Louis Cardinals over the weekend. Each team’s offense battled its way to victory, combining to score 46 runs over three games. The Cardinals outscored the Twins 21-20 over three games, but Minnesota still took the series.
Getting two out of three wins ain’t bad, especially for a team that entered the weekend eight games below .500. Most importantly, the Twins highlighted their ability to battle back and win games in the series.
On Friday night, the Twins were down 7-4 entering the bottom of the seventh and rallied back on a three-run home run from Kody Clemens to tie it up 7-7. Even with the Cardinals tallying one more run in the eighth to take back the lead, Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee hit solo home runs to come back and give the Twins a 9-8 victory.
The same thing happened Sunday afternoon: The Twins trailed 4-2 entering the bottom of the seventh. They rallied to tie it on RBI singles from Byron Buxton and Lewis. Then in the eighth, Ryan Kreidler provided the game-winning RBI double, giving Minnesota a 5-4 win and a series victory over the Cardinals.
It hasn’t been unusual for the Twins to be close to tying or winning their games throughout this season. Still, it had been uncommon for them to capitalize on the victories as they had on Friday and Sunday earlier in the season. Take their last two Saturday home games for example.
On June 6, against the Kansas City Royals, the Twins led in the top of the ninth, 2-1, but quickly saw that lead evaporate after reliever Eric Orze allowed the lead-off man, Isaac Collins, to reach on a single, advance to third, and score on a sac fly. Later, Orze gave up the game-winning run to Bobby Witt Jr.
Clemens led off the ninth inning with a double, but all the Twins batters that followed him failed to cash him in as the tying run.
Then, this past Saturday against the Cardinals, the Twins were tied 4-4 entering the seventh inning. But the Redbirds rallied for five runs in the seventh and nearly put the game out of reach at 9-4.
The Twins were able to scratch across two more runs and even managed to get the bases loaded in the ninth. But the rally was short-lived with a good at-bat from Victor Caratini, resulting in a flyout to left and solidifying the Cardinals’ 9-6 win.
Minnesota’s bullpen has been to blame for some of their losses this season, but its offense has also come up short to get the lead back plenty of times. Entering Sunday’s game, the Twins’ lineup hit a collective .215/.309/.346 between the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings with only 22 home runs, 88 RBI, and 92 runs scored.
Compare that to the production with how they’ve hit in the middle innings of games, a .257/.321/.444 slash line with 33 home runs, 115 RBI, and 121 runs scored, and it shows where this team finds themselves with their best production collectively in games.
The game ebbs and flows for any lineup throughout the year, and the Twins had been in a rut lately to rally in the ninth, which cost them four one-run losses over their last 13 games. However, Minnesota’s lineup has shown more signs of life since their 6-5 loss to the Royals on June 7, especially throughout the Cardinals series.
Minnesota’s offense is starting to threaten opposing pitchers in the later innings, even if their yearlong offensive stats haven’t drastically improved. Part of that can be attributed to Lewis’ production since his return from Triple-A. He’s hitting .379 with three home runs and five RBI in eight games.
The Twins likely don’t want to keep playing close, one-run games as the season progresses. However, they may do so during this upcoming road trip against the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks. They’re showing more dependability from their lineup to battle back and provide late-inning thrillers to get their team back in the fight.
