Three reasons behind the Twins’ tough stretch

It wasn’t too long ago that the Twins were among the best teams in the American League, riding high after beating some of the best starters in the game.

Things have changed rapidly over the course of the past week and a half.

The Twins returned home after a road trip in which they won just one of six games, entering Monday’s game against the Seattle Mariners losers of nine of their past 10 games.

Here’s three reasons that explain their latest skid.

Lack of clutch hits

Getting runners on base generally has not been the problem for the Twins. Bringing them home has been a whole different story.

In their past series against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Twins were held to just five runs across three games. They went a combined 2 for 20 with runners in scoring position. As a team, the Twins entered Monday slashing .267/.372/.435 with runners in scoring position, but much of those numbers have been propped up by their early-season success.

“It’s one of those cyclical things. It seemed like for two weeks, every situation we had … a majority of them, we were capitalizing. And then we’ve gone the other way,” manager Derek Shelton said. “I think it’s going to level out here at some point. It’s never going to be that good, and it’s never going to be that bad.”

Defense

Near the beginning of this stretch, the Twins had a pair of late leads against the Cincinnati Reds. Some shaky defense did them no favors. Last Sunday against the Reds, for example, they committed two errors on the same play in the 10th inning, allowing the game-winning run to score.

It’s representative of a larger problem: the Twins don’t grade out as a particularly good defensive team. Their -6 Outs Above Average entering Monday is 25th of 30 teams this season, and their -9 Defensive Runs Saved (Fielding Bible) is 27th in the league, providing an uphill battle for their pitching staff.

Bullpen

The starting staff has taken some lumps — Joe Ryan gave up seven runs against the New York Mets, Taj Bradley allowed four home runs in his last start, Simeon Woods Richardson allowed seven against Boston. But most of the time, the staff has at least left the team in a position to win.

But there have been a few games lost late, including the final two against Cincinnati. In one, the bullpen gave up a run in each of the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. In the other, it gave up three runs in the ninth and three more in the 10th. Late runs in two of the Mets games also contributed to losses.

Entering Monday, their bullpen earned-run average sat at 4.85, which is 23rd in the majors.

Related Articles

• Saints win series finale at Indianapolis
• Twins lose fifth straight as Tampa Bay sweeps series
• Ober solid but Twins’ offense no help in 6-1 loss to Rays
• Shane McClanahan wins at Tropicana Field for 1st time in nearly 3 years as Rays beat Twins 6-1
• Twins fall as Taj Bradley roughed up in return to Tampa Bay