BOSTON — The final score on Sunday suggests a very different game than the Twins and Red Sox were embroiled in for much of the day.
For the first seven-and-a-half innings, the two teams were engaged in a pitcher’s duel, a clutch hit that could have helped break the open. Instead, the Twins’ sputtering offense didn’t get what it was looking for and the bullpen spiraled the game out of control in the eighth inning as the Twins lost 8-1 to the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sunday afternoon.
“We have a chance to win every game,” said shortstop Carlos Correa. “It’s great, there’s a positive side to it. Now we have to put all the pieces together to get a few more wins on this road trip.”
The Twins have lost four of their last five matches. In six of his nine matches this season, he has finished with five or fewer hits, collecting just four in Sunday’s defeat.
They are currently sitting at 3-6 with a .182 team batting average and .603 OPS. Both numbers are near the bottom of the larger companies.
“Our offense isn’t quite what it sounds like, but that’s what happens when you play 162 every year,” said Correa, who finished Sunday’s game 0 for 4. “There are some ups. There are some ups. We just happened to start in the downs, but it’s going to back up. When it comes back, it’s going to be fun again.”
Perhaps watching starter Bailey Ober was the only fun part of Sunday’s game for Twins fans. Ober matched zero with Red Sox starter Michael Wacha for the first five innings of Sunday’s game.
In the sixth, Boston made the first strike, scoring on a pair of sacrificial flies, which came when Miguel Sano couldn’t handle a ball and hit his way to first base to lead the innings. Ober conceded only two runs in his six-innings debut, and both were unearned.
This was more than enough to keep his team in the game, if only they were able to capitalize on their offensive opportunities.
“We were in that ballgame for seven innings. We are pretty close to making some big pitches and big hits,” Ober said. “We are just waiting for someone to step in. We feel like any one of the nine can do it, and anyone in our bullpen or any of our starters can do it, and it’s up to us to go out there and get it done. ,
The Twins’ only run of the day came on the fly in the seventh inning to sacrifice Trevor Larnach. In an innings in which the Twins collected a pair of hits and two hitters drew walks, that was a run they managed.
After being shut out the day before, Max Kepler, who scored on Larnach’s sac fly, was the only runner to finish third on Sunday all day.
“When (we) broke down (camp), I felt like the confidence of our guys was very high and people were swinging the bat well. Why this did not happen is difficult to say,” said manager Rocco Baldelli. “We had a few opportunities to open a game or take a multi-run lead with just one base hit, and it looks like when we had those chances, we clearly haven’t done the job.”
And while the Twins’ offense was expected to be the team’s strength — and still is — nine games, the Twins, for whatever reason, have yet to click exactly as intended to watch it.
“There is not a year when crime is not cold, either at the beginning, the middle or the end. It just happens,” said Korea. “We have to keep working. Everybody is putting in the work, including me.” I’m involved. We’re trying to figure it out. Once we figure that out, you’re going to see more runs on the scoreboard.”
