All Things 2024 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

Maybe they'll go 3-17 during this next 20 game stretch after going 17-3 before this recent 6 game losing streak. God I hope not, stop the bleeding!
 

Great effort again tonight. At least the Yankees and Cleveland are good teams. Your "ace" shouldn't be roughed up by Washington.
 

Twins have won 12 of 35 games outside of their 12 game winning steak. Someone get the sausage back.
 


I don’t know how it’s possible to look so good and so bad in such a short period of time. I’ve somewhat defended Vazquez at times but man he’s just terrible.
 


If a complete collapse was enough to get the Pohlads to sell or at least move on from the Falvey Spreadsheet regime, I'd be in favor of it. Sadly they'll run it back in 2025 no matter what happens.
 

Frank Viola and Ron Darling locked horns in what is perhaps the greatest pitchers' duel in college baseball history on this date in 1981.

Ron Darling was pitching a no-hitter through 11 innings, but St. John's final squeaked a run across the plate in the top of the 12th.

Frank Viola pitched 11 shutout innings before yielding to the bullpen to lock down the win in the bottom of the 12th.

Only 2,500 people witnessed this epic pitchers' duel, but among them were legendary baseball writer Roger Angell and 91-year-old Smoky Joe Wood, who won 34 games during the 1912 regular season, and another three in the World Series.

The Twins drafted Viola in the second round less than three weeks later. The Rangers selected Ron Darling ninth overall.
 

At this point the 7 game losing streak pretty much negates the 12 game winning streak. They need to start winning against their fellow Central foes too.
 

I see we are in the "players only meeting" portion of the season:

After the Twins were blown out for the second time in three days, losing 12-3 to the Washington Nationals for their seventh consecutive loss, there was a players-only team meeting inside the visitors' clubhouse.

Players were mum about what was said during the meeting, but it was only eight days ago when the Twins completed a stretch where they won 17 of 20 games. Now they're on the franchise's longest losing streak in six years.


"It's not fun to be in this spot," Carlos Correa said. "It's not where we want to be. It's not what we work or strive for. We've just got to be better. I think everybody here knows it."


Win Twins!!
 



If a complete collapse was enough to get the Pohlads to sell or at least move on from the Falvey Spreadsheet regime, I'd be in favor of it. Sadly they'll run it back in 2025 no matter what happens.
It won't matter what happens this season one iota. They can fall back on the "we were helpless because of our TV contract and did the best we could" BS. They'll milk that as long as people let them.
 

Unfortunately another lefty for Washington tonight, so Kepler, Larnach and Julien aren't allowed to start. Vazquez is due though.
 

Unfortunately another lefty for Washington tonight, so Kepler, Larnach and Julien aren't allowed to start. Vazquez is due though.
Something I was not expecting: The Twins are hitting .257 against LH starters and .221 against RH starters. The SLG and OPS are almost identical.
 

4 guys in the lineup hitting .201 or less, including Margot, who is leading off at .198. I don't understand. Piles and piles of data available and all they care about is a right/lefty matchup. I'd even be willing to concede the strategy if it worked last night. Or in Cleveland. Or against Rodon. But it's not working.
 




4 guys in the lineup hitting .201 or less, including Margot, who is leading off at .198. I don't understand. Piles and piles of data available and all they care about is a right/lefty matchup. I'd even be willing to concede the strategy if it worked last night. Or in Cleveland. Or against Rodon. But it's not working.
Kepler is OPS'ing over 1.000 against lefties this year, but we refuse to let him start against lefties. Margot must start. Even Margot's career OPS against lefties is only marginally better than Kepler's and he's clearly fallen off badly. The same is true with Larnach though he barely any AB's against lefties because God forbid.
 

I see we are in the "players only meeting" portion of the season:

After the Twins were blown out for the second time in three days, losing 12-3 to the Washington Nationals for their seventh consecutive loss, there was a players-only team meeting inside the visitors' clubhouse.

Players were mum about what was said during the meeting, but it was only eight days ago when the Twins completed a stretch where they won 17 of 20 games. Now they're on the franchise's longest losing streak in six years.


"It's not fun to be in this spot," Carlos Correa said. "It's not where we want to be. It's not what we work or strive for. We've just got to be better. I think everybody here knows it."


Win Twins!!

It worked last season, so why not🤷‍♂️

Did the sausage attend?
 

Have the Twins thanked the Timberwolves for taking them off the front page?
 


In the 7 game losing streak, they're hitting .176 with just 12 extra base hits and have scored a grand total of 12 runs.
 

AB's during the 7-game losing streak:
Margot: 15
Vazquez: 13
Farmer: 11
Kepler: 16
Larnach: 13
Julien: 18

The Margot/Vazquez/Farmer trio will have more AB's after tonight.
 


I've seen streaky teams in my day, but this is getting ridiculous.

BTW - went to Wikipedia. if it is correct, the longest regular season losing streak in baseball history is 26 games by the Louisville Colonels in 1889. In the modern era, the record is 23 by the Phillies in 1961.

the Orioles are on the list twice with a 21-game losing streak in 1988 and a 19-game streak in 2021.

as far as the Twins are concerned, record is 14 games in 1982. if you include the Senators, they had 3 different 18-game losing streaks, most recently in 1959. in 1949, the Senators had two separate 11-game losing streaks.
 





that was better. they should have a players-only meeting before every game.

or maybe just not swing out of their shoes at every pitch and try to look for more breaking balls.

in other news, the Strib says Royce Lewis is running the bases this week at Target Field, and will do some kind of simulated game situations on Friday. if he passes all the tests, he could go out on a rehab assignment.
 

The Twins signed free-agent catcher Sal Butera on this date in 1987. (He had previously played for the Twins from 1980 to '82.)

Salvatore played just 51 games for the Twins in 1987, but there are no small roles on a World Series Championship team.
 

and we have our answer to the Twins - the Sausage returned in the nick of time.

according to Dan Hayes in The Athletic, the Sausage was left in the Twin Cities after the Yankees' series.

Forgotten at home after they were swept by the New York Yankees, the Twins started to realize the magnitude of the sausage’s absence while the offense looked lifeless during a three-game sweep in Cleveland. Following their second loss to the Guardians and fifth in a row, hitting coach David Popkins called communications guru Dustin Morse late Saturday night to request he find the sausage in the home clubhouse and ship it to the nation’s capital because it wouldn’t get to Cleveland in time for Sunday’s series finale.

Morse delegated the task to Twins communications coordinator Nina Zimmerman on Sunday. Much to her chagrin, Zimmerman’s attempts to ship the sausage Sunday were denied. Instead, the sausage sat on a shelf inside her refrigerator until Monday morning. Later Monday, the Twins offense wilted again, scoring a measly three runs in a 12-3 loss to the Nationals.

The sausage arrived in the visiting clubhouse at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Unclear of the contents inside, Twins clubhouse attendant Frank Hanzlik brought the standard-sized package to senior director of team travel Mike Herman.

Herman, of course, knew of the spicy surprise inside. Not long after, the sausage found its way downstairs and was placed on a table near the indoor batting cages in the visiting clubhouse next to assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon and Danny-David Linahan, the team’s run production coordinator.

“That’s our lucky sausage,” Buxton said. “We didn’t have it in Cleveland, and things didn’t go right. Getting it back was big. I guess I’m going to have to hop on the train now. I done touched it now. … When I saw it (in the air), I couldn’t let it hit me.”
 

and we have our answer to the Twins - the Sausage returned in the nick of time.

according to Dan Hayes in The Athletic, the Sausage was left in the Twin Cities after the Yankees' series.

Forgotten at home after they were swept by the New York Yankees, the Twins started to realize the magnitude of the sausage’s absence while the offense looked lifeless during a three-game sweep in Cleveland. Following their second loss to the Guardians and fifth in a row, hitting coach David Popkins called communications guru Dustin Morse late Saturday night to request he find the sausage in the home clubhouse and ship it to the nation’s capital because it wouldn’t get to Cleveland in time for Sunday’s series finale.

Morse delegated the task to Twins communications coordinator Nina Zimmerman on Sunday. Much to her chagrin, Zimmerman’s attempts to ship the sausage Sunday were denied. Instead, the sausage sat on a shelf inside her refrigerator until Monday morning. Later Monday, the Twins offense wilted again, scoring a measly three runs in a 12-3 loss to the Nationals.

The sausage arrived in the visiting clubhouse at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Unclear of the contents inside, Twins clubhouse attendant Frank Hanzlik brought the standard-sized package to senior director of team travel Mike Herman.

Herman, of course, knew of the spicy surprise inside. Not long after, the sausage found its way downstairs and was placed on a table near the indoor batting cages in the visiting clubhouse next to assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon and Danny-David Linahan, the team’s run production coordinator.

“That’s our lucky sausage,” Buxton said. “We didn’t have it in Cleveland, and things didn’t go right. Getting it back was big. I guess I’m going to have to hop on the train now. I done touched it now. … When I saw it (in the air), I couldn’t let it hit me.”
We're really supposed to believe they "forgot it" when every road teams media asks about it?
 




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