Thirty minutes after the final out in the Twins’ 6-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Sunday, the sounds around the home clubhouse spoke volumes about the frustration with the team’s offensive performance.
Edouard Julien and Kyle Farmer were taking swings in the batting cages with their hitting coaches and Carlos Correa watching. Inside the clubhouse, Byron Buxton, Trevor Larnach and Royce Lewis were locked in a long conversation about hitting.
The Twins are batting .195, the lowest batting average in franchise history through their first 20 games. They haven’t scored more than four runs in a nine-inning game since April 3.
“I hate people saying it’s early,” Farmer said. “I hate it. Even when I talk to my parents or something, they’re like, ‘You have only 35 at-bats, relax.’ I said, ‘But yeah, I suck in those 35 at-bats.’ I mean, it doesn’t matter if it’s early or late. Who cares? It’s now. We’re living in the now. We want to win now.”
The Twins had five batters in their lineup Sunday batting below .200. Carlos Santana collected his first hit at Target Field this season with a fourth-inning single, ending an 0-for-20 home slump. Farmer, who is 3-for-38 (.079 average), says it’s the worst start to a season in his life.
“We’ve got some guys that took their shirts and jerseys off, and they’re in there hitting right now,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “That kind of tells you the way things are going at the moment. They’re not going the way we want. You mix in a few good swings; you need a lot more than that.”
The Twins have a .135 batting average and a .435 on-base-plus-slugging percentage with a runner on second or third base, highlighting their inability to consistently score this year. They had a slow offensive start last year, too, but urgency grows with their 7-13 record. There hasn’t been a team in franchise history that lost 13 of its first 20 games and finished with a winning record.
