The Minnesota Twins are on the periphery of the American League postseason race with the trade deadline approaching, three games out of the final wild-card position.
Absorbing three lopsided road losses in a three-day span, most recently a 13-4 mauling by the Cleveland Guardians on Monday, has not helped Minnesota’s chances.
Twins left-hander Kendry Rojas (1-1, 2.79 ERA) will take on Guardians lefty Parker Messick (8-5, 2.73) in the second contest of their four-game series in Cleveland on Tuesday.
Minnesota has been outscored 29-7 during its losing streak, which began with two defeats to the Chicago Cubs by a combined 16-3 margin immediately after winning seven of nine games.
The misery continued Monday, when All-Star pitcher Joe Ryan gave up a modern MLB record-tying six home runs over four innings. The Guardians clubbed seven total homers, tying their home franchise mark.
“It’s definitely frustrating and not the way you want to start a series against this team,” said Ryan, who is 1-3 over his last five starts while being the subject of trade speculation. “They beat me to the spot more times than I got them.
“It’s a tough one, right, because I’m the one that’s wearing it. It’s definitely all on me.”
While Minnesota’s bullpen has been borderline disastrous — with the exception of current closer Yoendrys Gomez — its starters have ranked in the middle of the pack in the AL all season.
That hasn’t been the case in their last three games, however, with Ryan following poor outings by Taj Bradley and Zebby Matthews, combining to allow 21 earned runs in just 12 innings for a 15.75 ERA while being tagged with three losses.
“As good as our starting pitching has been, we’ve had a lull,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “The balls were all in the middle of the plate, that’s what I saw from Joe. The way the whole night went, it’s encapsulated by the balls left over the plate.”
Rojas has made six relief appearances and two starts — the latter both no-decisions with a 1.50 ERA over six innings — since making his major league debut on April 22. He has a 1-1 record and 6.75 ERA in two bullpen outings against the Guardians.
Cleveland is one game behind the first-place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central while Minnesota sits five games back in third. The Guardians have split four contests coming out of the All-Star break.
Rhys Hoskins and rookie Petey Halpin each had two of the team’s seven homers in the series opener while Brayan Rocchio, Travis Bazzana and Patrick Bailey also went deep on a warm evening that was conducive to hitting.
“Homers are always cool, and we all try to be the guy that starts that contagiousness,” said Hoskins, who is three homers shy of 200 in his career. “A lot of the pitches were in the middle of the plate, and you can’t miss those in this league.”
Messick, like Ryan, worked a scoreless inning in the All-Star Game that the AL won 4-0. The rookie has pitched against the Twins twice in his 26-game career, posting a 1-0 record with 16 strikeouts and a 2.45 ERA in 11 innings.
“It was really important for the team to get off to a good start against a division rival,” said Tanner Bibee, the winning pitcher Monday. “And I feel like we did it pretty well.”
–Field Level Media
