The Twins June Swoon

On June 4th the Twins began a series against a Cleveland team that stood 11/2 games back, and was primed to be buried by a Twins team that had just taken 3 of 4 in Tampa Bay, the last burst of 27 wins in 36 games. The Twins were 40-18 and riding high.

But things have taken a decided downturn since. The Twins have gone 8-8 since that Cleveland series began.

Now, they did bounce back from the Cleveland series to take 2 of 3 in Detroit, and then they came back home for a 9 game homestand. But they played sloppy as hell on the homestand in every facet. The offense cooled off considerably and couldn't get a clutch hit. The starting rotation sprung leaks. The bullpen was the bullpen. The fielding was often embarrassing. Now, there were exceptions on all of these, and they still managed to win 4 of 6 thanks to Seattle and KC being 2 of the worst teams in baseball.

But Boston totally outclassed them for 3 games. Face it, that 17 inning marathon could have been a loss a dozen different times. Now tonight's lifeless defeat in KC gives them an 8-8 record during a period of the schedule where they should have been cleaning up.

Cleveland has gone 10-5 in this same time period, and against better competition too. That 11/2 game lead has dropped to 9. Now, I get it. A 9 game division lead as summer arrives is something that every single Twins fan would have flipped for in March. And to only lose 2 1/2 games in 17 days is not a crisis. Those games can be made back up in one hot series.

But it's also foolish to just ignore all the warning signs like they aren't there. When almost an entire roster top to bottom hits the skids it has to be noted.

I feel like the starting rotation was always due for a slight regression, and again, the bullpen is the bullpen. And the offense was never going to maintain that insane level of production they were at. But the offense has largely collapsed of late. The nobody pitchers are shutting this lineup down night after night (they couldn't hit Tommy freaking Milone). The bombas have mostly died at the warning track. Clutch hits (unless it's Max Kepler) have vanished. There are an alarming number of quick at bats and innings. It seems they never get any runs at all early in games. The strikeouts are soaring (Sano and 3 pitch Ks, name a more iconic duo). And by extension this puts that much more pressure on every other area of the team to be perfect.

But if this team is going to still go on to win the division and make noise in October it will HAVE to be from the offense leading the way. I know they have a few guys out now, but that just happened. This lineup should not ever be this unreliable. It's starting to give off a 2018 vibe.

And of course, this could just be that slump that all teams go through. If this team goes an even .500 the rest of the way they still win 92 games and likely the division. But don't forget, this team honestly has no chance in October if they have to get through both New York AND Houston. They can't afford to piss away games that could cost them home field advantage, or god forbid have to go on the road to start a division series.