It’s Festivus in May for the Twins as they lose and air grievances

The semi-fictional holiday of “Festivus” was conceived by the father of a boy who later became a writer for “Seinfeld,” the megahit TV show that brought it into the mainstream.

In a 1997 episode — the late 1900s, as some now refer to the rapidly receding past century — George Costanza celebrates a non-secular, non-commercial alternative to winter holidays on Dec. 23.

Some of the hallmarks of Festivus in the episode, as summarized by Wikipedia, are these: an unadorned aluminum Festivus pole, practices such as the “airing of grievances” and “feats of strength”, and the labeling of easily explainable events as “Festivus miracles”.

Let us declare this, then, Festivus in May for your Minnesota Twins.

They might have a better chance at scoring runs with a Festivus pole instead of their current bats. Their games have featured plenty of feats of strength (sadly, for their opponents). It seems like simply winning a game, after being outscored 45-12 during their current seven-game losing streak, would be a Festivus miracle.

And they are most definitely airing their grievances, as I talked about on Tuesday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

After giving up a walk-off home run on a curveball Sunday, Twins closer Jhoan Duran questioned whether the directive from pitching coach Pete Maki and catcher Christian Vazquez to throw that pitch was the right one but suggested he didn’t have much say in the process.

“It’s not my decision,” Duran said Sunday. “I thought that he wasn’t good with fastballs. I’m an employee here, so whatever I need to throw, I need to throw it.”

A day later, before the Twins were hammered 12-3 by Washington, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said Duran can make his case to throw a different pitch before it happens, not after.

“I think he’s just frustrated and was looking for a way to vent,” Baldelli said, adding: “I thought it was unusual. I wasn’t expecting it. I like to handle our stuff here with a conversation in the clubhouse.”

One could point out, as I did on the podcast, that Baldelli didn’t seem to be keeping the conversation in the clubhouse by talking fairly extensively about the process and Duran’s reaction.

Rocco’s grievances continued postgame Monday as he lamented the Twins’ approach against Nationals rookie starter Mitchell Parker.

“The guy just stood out there and threw off-speed pitches for like four straight innings,” Baldelli said. “We didn’t do anything about it. We continued to wave at them and look for fastballs, which today, they weren’t coming, especially for the first five, six innings. In this stretch of games where we’ve been struggling, that’s been a common theme.”

Twins players surely aired more grievances, this time in private, when they held a players-only meeting after Monday’s loss.

Perhaps they can get to the bottom of how a team can start 7-13, then put together a 17-3 stretch, followed by an ugly seven-game losing streak.

It adds up mathematically to 24-23, but it doesn’t add up.

If Festivus is really for “the rest of us,” maybe the Twins should just be glad that the rest of us are mostly focused on the Wolves right now.

Here are four more things to know today:

*Also on Tuesday’s podcast, Star Tribune writer and editor Jeff Day joined to help explain the joy the Timberwolves are bringing to their die-hard fans and the entire state.

*Will smaller Division I athletic conferences be able to survive the financial impact of the NCAA’s expected $2.7 billion antitrust settlement?

*Can PWHL Minnesota even its series with Boston? And should we continue to expect a lot more offense in this series than the one against Toronto?

*Star Tribune Timberwolves writer Chris Hine is expected to join me on Wednesday’s podcast as we gear up for Game 1 of Wolves vs. Mavericks at Target Center. Even without Anthony Edwards’ galvanizing three-word phrase, I imagine fans would be ready.