Jose Miranda is Twins’ man on fire, but pitching isn’t backing him up

Jose Miranda pushed his hitting streak to an astounding 10 straight at-bats, and that herculean effort did nothing for the Twins in attempting to derail the smokin’-hot Houston Astros on Friday night at Target Field.

As the old hardball adage goes, pathetic pitching almost always is the favorite to lose, and the Twins offered plenty of that on this night — starting with the home team’s alleged ace, Pablo López.

You can try to tell me that the metrics are still workable for López, but my eyes, lyin’ or not, tell me the level of life on his pitches compared to 2023 is feeble.

On Friday night, it was three runs for Houston in the second and three more that were charged to López in the sixth. Jorge Alcala wobbled in that inning for the first time in a while, then Josh Winder and Kody Funderburk were fodder for an Astros lineup that produced 13 runs.

And then to give a fully absurd quality to Miranda’s historic night, manager Rocco Baldelli pinch hit for him in the ninth, and the Twins scored seven runs against the Astros’ pen to make it a 13-12 loss.

Houston went into the bottom of the ninth with an eight-run lead, and it had to go to closer Josh Hader to get the final out, although not before former Astros star Carlos Correa reached Hader for a grand slam.

On this night of nuttiness, one thing that was unique was the home crowd booing Jose Altuve every time he came to the plate. Apparently, this had to do with Altuve’s involvement in the garbage can World Series of 2017, even though Correa — now a Twins hero — was Altuve’s double-play colleague.

Fans can be weird individuals, no doubt about it.

Which brings us to Miranda, who went 5-for-5 on Thursday, with no chance to bat after the 12-3 victory vs. Detroit was stopped in the bottom of the seventh.

On Friday night, Miranda rocketed a single to start a two-run rally in the second. He homered down the left field line to create a 3-3 tie in the third. He doubled into left field to put the Twins ahead 4-3 in the fifth.

And then he singled in the seventh — 4-for-4, to go with the 5-for-5, to go with a hit in the last at-bat on Wednesday.

Ten straight hits in as many at-bats, a Twins club record and one short of tying a major league record.

And then to initially irritate the customers that had stayed through a long game (3:21) by current standards, Baldelli had Austin Martin pinch hit for Miranda in the ninth.

This was either an attempt to promote ticket sales for Saturday’s 1:10 p.m. — come and watch Miranda try to keep it going — or a reaction to Twins pitchers having hit three Astros with pitches.

There seemed to be some unhappiness over this in the visitors’ dugout, and, well, you don’t want to offer the temptation of your hottest hitter at the plate, not when the cause is lost.

Which it wasn’t, as it turned out, until Manuel Margot made the final out vs. Hader, after Margot butchered a ball in left field to assist the Astros earlier.

Insane game, with Miranda on this insane streak.

Baldelli was asked before Friday’s game if any of the other five-hit games for the Twins came in one as short as one ending in the bottom of the seventh.

This was a true Stump the Manager brain-buster since there had been 59 previous five-hit games for the Twins, plus Baldelli also had this issue with trying to answer:

“Is that when we stopped … the seventh?”

Maranda knocked in 20 runs in June, a month in which Alex Kirilloff was dispatched to St. Paul (and then put on the injured list). This created less of an urge not to start Miranda against a righthanded starter.

He has taken full advantage. He was in Friday’s lineup as the designated hitter, with 16 RBI and a .457 batting average in his past 12 games.

Baldelli was asked prior to Friday’s game: What’s going on with Miranda?

“He’s on fire," the manager said. “He’s using his hands to get a full swing anywhere in the zone. The way pitching is now, the variety of pitches … most hitters have to pick a spot.

“During this streak, Jose has been getting to most any pitch. He’s hitting the ball all over, hard."

That he has been, except in the ninth, when apparent caution won out over the potential for another 5-for-5.

Jose Miranda is the only player in Twins history to have 10 hits in 10 consecutive at-bats, a streak that remains active. The previous record was shared by three players:

10 Jose Miranda, July 3-5, 2024

9 Todd Walker, July 24-28, 1998

9 Mickey Hatcher, April 27-28, 1985

9 Tony Oliva, Sept. 8-9, 1967