Four runs is the magic number in baseball. If you look at the way things break down year in and year out, the team that scores four runs or more wins the vast majority of its games.
The Twins have now scored three or fewer runs in four straight games (all losses), and are on their way to their fifth straight as I type. Not counting today, they are now 3-8 when they’ve scored four or fewer runs.
The pitching hasn’t been great –too many long innings, too much nibbling, too many pitches, too many base runners, too many early deficits– but the offense has squandered opportunity after opportunity in every game. We’ve seen lousy at bats (and a seemingly endless series of broken bats), misfortune (and stupidity) on the base paths, non-existent clutch hitting, and stranded runners galore. It has been very, very painful to watch.
You can go ahead and write off the offensive frustrations as an early slump, and I do expect the Twins will eventually snap out of it. Still, I do believe it’s not too early to conclude that the team needs to shake things up at the top of the order. Alexi Casilla is an entertaining player, but at present –with the exception of speed– he possesses none of the requisites of a leadoff hitter. He’s a bottom-of-the-order guy. Nick Punto? He’s a bottom-of-the-order guy.
At the moment, unfortunately, the Twins roster is full of bottom-of-the-order guys, and the middle-of-the-order guys are either scuffling or producing in a vacuum.
Bottom line: everybody’s pressing, and it sucks.
What do you think are the priorities for management at this point, other than obviously getting some of the walking wounded back in the lineup? At what point do they give up on Ponson and fly somebody in from Rochester? And given that staff in Rochester, who gets the first call? Is it time for Terry Ryan to start thinking about trading some of that AAA pitching talent (Scott Baker) for some offense? If so, who do they trade (Scott Baker) and what could they get (for Scott Baker)?
How often do you suppose a guy could put up a pitching line like Boof did today (five IP, three hits, and seven walks) and leave a game without surrendering any runs? I’m just going to guess not very often. Seriously, that was a thing of wretched beauty: seven walks and eight strikeouts in five innings.
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