The Twins in June, meh: 13 wins, 15 losses, their first losing month of the season. Could have been worse considering that the month began and ended on seasonal low points. On June 1 and 2, they lost games in Detroit, capping off a series in which they fell in four of five to the lowly Tigers. Their pitching staff was in tatters—just getting to the 9-inning finish line each day was a challenge, without regard to the question of winning or losing, and their next nine games were against the Jays, Yankees, and Rays, all playoff teams. Somehow they went 5-4 in those three series. They were bumping along like that till the end of the month, when they had another 5-game road series, this one in Cleveland against the Guardians, who are proving to be their main competition in the AL Central. They won two one-sided games and lost the other three, all after late-inning leads had been bollixed by the bullpen, the last two, on the 29th and 30th, by the walk-off homer method.
The problem of just finding a pitcher to get you to the end of the game has again arisen. On June 30, locked in a tight contest against the team with the best chance to finish ahead of them in the division, the Twins were reduced to sending Tyler Thornburg to the mound for the eighth and ninth innings. Who, you might ask, is Tyler Thornburg, thereby making my point for me. He pitched to eleven batters, retiring five of them. Of the other six, three walked, one was hit by a pitch, and two got hits. Four scored, two in the eighth and two in the ninth, including of course the guy who hit the walk-off dinger. Thornburg threw 48 pitches in the game, and, of the 47 that didn't hit the batter, 26 were called balls. His place on the roster has now been taken by Juan Minaya, who was called up from the Twins' Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul, where he had compiled a 5.73 ERA over 22 innings pitched.
The Twins reportedly are in talks with other teams about possibly acquiring bullpen help. You might say that their desperation is partly their own doing. At the start of the season, they traded Taylor Rogers, a bullpen stalwart over the past few seasons, as well as prospect Brent Rooker, to the San Diego Padres for pitchers Emilio Pagan, Chris Paddack, and Brayan Medina. Pagan has been a leading figure in the bullpen collapse—he has an ERA north of 5 and a WHIP north of 1.4. Paddack hasn't pitched since early May and recently underwent Tommy John surgery. Medina is struggling in the low minors. Rogers has a 2.84 ERA and 22 saves for the Padres.
The Twins record against the Guardians this year has been crazy. In eleven games played so far, Minnesota has outscored Cleveland 61-45—and won just five times. The six losses have been by a total of seven runs. The Twins are one game ahead of Cleveland in the AL Central standings.
Though it's not as if there haven't been bright spots for a team that's still in first place. Luis Arraez continues to lead the American League in batting average (.343) and on base percentage (.421). Byron Buxton has played in just 60 of the team's 80 games but still has slugged 21 home runs—Aaron Judge is the only hitter in the majors with more than 23. The beleaguered pitching staff has received a respite from some unlikely sources, such as Devin Smeltzer, who in his last couple of starts has allowed just one run in 12 innings pitched. Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax have both pitched well in relief all year. Alas and alack, there's a game every day, and they can't pitch in all of them. What did fans of the Boston Braves used to say?
First we'll use Spahn
and then we'll use Sain.
Then an off day
followed by rain.
Back will come Spahn
followed by Sain,
and followed
we hope
by two days of rain.
But if you're calling in guys from the bullpen, it already hasn't rained.