#-1: Twins (Last Week: -2). 2-4 for the week. Patrick Reusse of the Star Tribune of Minneapolis confirmed a fact I only thought was true after the Twinks beat the New York Yankees in the Bronx 7-1 on Sunday: That win marked the sixth time this year so far that they won the getaway game in order to avoid a sweep. I think, however, that the number of series where this club has only won one game is far greater, as evidenced by their midweek series in which they won the first of a three-game set against the White Sox in Chicago but dropped the next two (the first of those two where they were down 9-1 in the top of the ninth and somehow scored five runs before losing, the second of which where they came back to the tie the game twice but coughed up the winning run in a 6-5 contest in the bottom of the eighth). It seems like it's, like, the 20th series where they've done that, and that is how they became The Worst Team In Baseball.
Meanwhile, even though I may be late to the party when it comes to this, the youth movement that seemed to have finally crashed ashore for the squad appears to have ebbed back to the depths. Oswaldo Arcia was given up and signed by the Tampa Bay Rays. Miguel Sano is still injured. The organization has finally come to the conclusion there is no use for Byron Buxton to be sent back down, but he's now riding the pine in the hopes he'll get his mind right when he gets to the plate. And Byung Ho Park has fallen so far off the grid that he might be sent down to the minors. How could so many young players playing so well last year all suck this year? This reminds me of the Kansas City Royals about 15 years ago, when they were in the middle of their dark days. Until their back-to-back World Series appearances in 2014 and last year, the only glimmer of hope the franchise had was this one first half where they came out of nowhere to go above .500 through the All-Star Break. I think Mike Sweeney was the star on that team. Anyway, they had a horrible second half, the Royals finished out of the money, and Manager Tony Peña Jr. went from a savior to fired not too long thereafter. That is what the Twins' current plight reminds me of.
On the bright side, however, Brian Dozier, who is not injured (that would be Trevor Plouffe), became the first players since Alex Rodriguez and Chipper Jones a decade ago to have an extra-base hit in 11 straight games. Dozier did that yesterday (Thursday) with a Home Run. So at least the club has that going for him. And Dozier now leads Eduardo Nuñez in the running for Twins Lone All-Star Representative.
They host The Bastard Washington Senators v.2.0. for the weekend starting tonight (Friday night -- I wonder if my old boss from El Paso is going to try and reach out to me), then they'll host The Bastard Philadelphia-By-Way-Of-Kansas City Athletics for three games starting on Independence Day, they they'll head to Dallas to start a four-game series vs. the Rangers starting on Thursday.
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