MINNEAPOLIS – The twins’ season-long battle against left-handed pitchers in 2020 was among the more confusing developments of a team that boasted Mitch Garver, Nelson Cruz, Josh Donaldson and Miguel Sanó in the middle of a series that returned the most from its core from the ’19 Bomba Squad ‘, which scattered the smoldering ruins of southern legs in its aftermath.
Minnesota finally found its mojo again against a left-hander on Thursday – and it was a sight to behold.
The Southpaw in question was Seattle stockingman Marco Gonzales, and the twins dealt him two big blows on a three-pointer homer by Garver and a solo blast by a red-hot Byron Buxton, who finished with three hits and a triple shy of cycling, when Minnesota sailed after a 10-2 victory over the Mariners in front of a sold-out crowd of 9,675 in its home opening at Target Field.
“It felt like there were a lot of people in the stands, I’ll be honest with you, and if we go there and play a nice ball game for them, it’s all better,” said manager Rocco Baldelli.
Gonzales has been marked for seven merit runs, and this is only the second time since the start of the 2020 season that the twins have scored more than four runs against a left-back crowd. The Twins moved from an MLB-leading .872 team OPS against lefts in ’19 to a .658 team OPS against southpaws in ’20, and 27th place in MLB.
Even when the injured Donaldson (the right leg of the thigh muscle) stayed out of the series, the right-handed bats – old and new – made a big impact, much more in line with what Baldelli expects from the extreme right-handed skew in his starting lineup against links. Kyle Garlick collected two more hits, including an RBI double, while Buxton scored two runs, Garver threw a few extra hits and Andrelton Simmons picked up three shots.
Buxton’s warm start more than made up for the temporary loss of Donaldson’s bat. The midfielder is the first player in Twins history with extra hits in his first six games of a season. In fact, his first seven hits of 2021 went for extra dogs – including four homers and three doubles – before his sixth inning broke the series.
Fans did not seem too disappointed when he did not do the triplets to complete the cycle, as hymns of ‘MVP! MVP! ”It rained all afternoon on Buxton.
“I worked a little harder in the cage to work a little more on my routine, and I trust that the process I work with in the cage can translate to the field,” Buxton said. “It’s a growth process, but things are starting to come together.”
Equally important is the production of Garver, whose regression from the Silver Slugger Prize winner in 2019 to a .511 OPS in ’20, while struggling with an oblique injury, certainly did not help the twins’ fight against leftists not. He started showing flashes of his old self with a hard contact (more than 95 km / h) on all four balls he put into play in Thursday’s game, including the 106.3 km / h homer who after estimated 435 feet to the center and traveled a 101.3 km / h. double, in addition to a few flies to the warning lane.
It’s the kind of batting that gave Baldelli the confidence to make Garver his preferred incident against many leftists – and the twins will still put him in the foreground.
‘[He] has the ability to go there, to have good batsmen, to learn from his previous batting surface, to learn from batting surface that he had recently, ”said Baldelli. “Again, a man we’ll really rely on and need at left-handed pitch, and I think he’s comfortable in the role the guys face, too.”
The loss of big right-handed bats like Jonathan Schoop and CJ Cron from the ’19 group did not help last season – nor did the injuries to Garver and Donaldson. Although Donaldson is not yet active, the twins hope they now have enough right-hand depth to not only survive, but also thrive when leftists are on the hill – like again on Saturday.
“I expect we can put out a group that can consistently make life difficult for left-wing beginners,” Baldelli said. “It’s important to force the left-handers to get through the series, and I don’t think there’s a soft spot for them.”