The Twins, when we last checked, were 26-29; as of June 24th
Minnesota is 34-38, good enough for 4th in the AL Central. Cleveland went through a dismal stretch and
are now trailing the Tigers by four games with the Royals (6.5 GB) and our
Twins (7 GB) still angling for a wildcard spot.
The aging White Sox are 10.5 GB.
The Twins pitching staff has been more down than up this
year but there have been signs of progress.
The Twins offense has had its share of growing pains but they’ve
actually been pretty good lately putting up five or more runs in five out of
the last six (3-3). When we last checked
in, our boys were going on an interleague road trip—they ended up dropping two
out of three to the Nationals but winning two out of three against
Philadelphia. After that a nice
homestand saw the Twins drop two out of three to the Tigers, but sweep the Pale
Hose and scuffle a bit against the Indians in Cleveland.
So far in June the statistics bear out an improvement for
the Twins in both pitching and hitting; the team’s ERA has been a sparkling
3.63 with 124 strikeouts in 176 innings.
The staff has only given up 12 long balls. Young pitchers Samuel Deduno, Pedro Hernandez
have combined to go 3-1 in June, and closer Glen Perkins hasn’t given up a run
and opponents are only batting .103 against him.
On the offensive side, the Twins have gotten more of the
2012 version of 3B Trevor Plouffe, who has hit .344 for the month, joining Joe
Mauer and rookie Oswaldo Arcia as Twins hitting over the .300 mark in the
month. The real surprise may be 2B/SS
Brian Dozier pacing the club in homers with 5 to go with a team-leading 12
RBI. The team has inched up the major
league rankings in runs scored (17th – 304) and on-base percentage
(.321 – good enough for 13th in baseball).
The Twins have some guys that should be All-Stars. Since we’re prattling off statistics here are
some individual stats that are encouraging as we get into the heat of summer
and a hopeful playoff chase for our Twins.
Joe Mauer, a shoo-in to start at catcher (again) for the American
League, is hitting .330 (3rd in the AL) and is eight in the league
in hits (91), tied for tenth in runs scored (46) and tied with Baltimore’s
Chris Davis for second in doubles (24) and on-base percentage (.413)
Other Twins offensive leaders include OF Josh Willingham is
tenth in the AL in walks (37). While
he’s not leading the team in strikeouts anymore, closer Glen Perkins should
definitely be considered for the midsummer classic given his 19 saves (fifth in
the league), 0.80 ERA.
Can the Twins get back to over .500? The last time they were was May 11th
when they were 17-16 after an 8-5 pasting of the Orioles. By the time the calendar hits July, the
Twins will have played a two-game set in Miami and an eight game slate at home
against the Royals and Yankees. If they
can sweep the lowly-but-playing-better recently Marlins, split four with the
Yankees and take three out of four from Kansas City – they’d be looking at
40-41. These Twins can do it – the
hitting needs to stay productive in scoring situations and the pitching is
improving every day. They just called
up Kyle Gibson, their top pitching prospect and he’ll pitch June 29th
against the Royals. Gibson overcame
elbow surgery and his promotion to the big club has been long coming.
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