MIAMI – A thunderstorm raged outside loanDepot Park on Thursday, the lightning visible through the windows. Underneath the dome, though, everything was calm and quiet, the Twins offense unable once again to interrupt the tranquility.
The Twins managed only five hits and one run in the matinée finale, losing 4-1 to the Marlins in the rubber game of the series. It’s the eighth consecutive series the Twins have failed to win; they haven’t won a series since taking three of four from the Athletics in Sacramento a month ago.
They come home Friday for a holiday day game against the Rays after a particularly ugly visit to Miami, having scored only three runs in three games, collecting just 15 hits and sending only three hitters to the plate in 17 of the 27 innings against the 39-46 Marlins.
“Obviously we have to get it going offensively. That’s certainly no secret,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We have to start by keeping the pitchers in the strike zone. We can’t go up there and expand. First pitch to a lot of guys, well out of the zone, we’re offering on those pitches — it’s unacceptable. We’ll hold ourselves accountable on that. We have to do that, we absolutely have to do that.”
Eury Pérez was the beneficiary of the Twins’ lack of plate discipline, issuing a walk in the first inning to Willi Castro but not another. The 22-year-old righthander struck out seven and induced weak contact much of the day, giving up only one hit.
“He throws 100, he’s got a couple of breaking balls, and he’s 6-8 [tall], so he gets a lot of extension,” Ty France said after his 0-for-4 day. “Even though he was in the zone, a lot of his pitches were unpredictable. One slider would go one way, one would back up, one would just spin. It was hard to take good swings. His delivery is slow and methodical, and then the ball just jumps out of his hand. He’s got a lot of things going for him.”
Still, Pérez had given up 11 runs in his 16 major league innings this season before Thursday, so his six shutout innings on just 80 pitches came as a surprise to the Twins.
But here’s a theory: Perhaps it had more to do with the dwindling Twins offense, which has put 33 zeroes on the scoreboard over 36 innings this week, starting with Detroit’s two-hit shutout Sunday night.