CHICAGO – If you are wondering if the Twins have been botching more plays in the field of late, you are correct.
Twins fielders played a relatively clean game Sunday during their 11-1 rout of the White Sox. But they had committed six errors over the previous three games and 12 errors in 16 games since the All-Star break.
That gives the Twins 71 errors on the season, tied for ninth-most in the majors.
And the errors don't tell the entire defensive story. There have been bad decisions on where to throw the ball, ill-advised diving attempts at sinking fly balls and other missed plays.
And the Twins have paid the price lately in the form of unearned runs. There were 15 unearned runs scored off Twins pitchers in April and May combined. That ballooned to 20 in June and 16 this month.
All this without drilling deep into defensive analytics.
A team's weaknesses will be exposed over a 162-game season. But manager Rocco Baldelli doesn't feel defense is a weakness for his team.
"No, because I think these are the types of plays that, when you play a ton of baseball and you're playing it at the major league level and things are happening fast out there, sometimes things don't go smoothly," Baldelli said. "Sometimes decisions are made very quickly on the field. Ultimately, they don't work out the way you want, but a lot of those plays are very challenging to prepare for."
