Image courtesy of Dennis Lee-Imagn Images
The Weekly Nutshell:
Things started off swimmingly, with the Twins securing three straight lopsided victories against the Athletics and rising to seven games above .500 midway through the week. However, they lost Pablo López to an injury in one of those games and it proved to be an ill omen. The A’s avoided a sweep on Thursday with a blowout win and then the Twins dropped tight games against Toronto on Friday and Saturday, sucking the wind out of their sails and offsetting their early-week success. Adding to their woes, Minnesota lost another starter to another shoulder injury over the weekend, leaving their once-admirable rotation depth in a state of disrepair.
The Twins closed out the week with a win to end a three-game skid, with their league-best bullpen leading the way. They’ll be hoping for plenty more of that as they prepare for life without two critical starting arms.
Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 6/2 through Sun, 6/8
***
Record Last Week: 4-3 (Overall: 35-30)
Run Differential Last Week: +7 (Overall: +37)
Standing: 2nd Place in AL Central (7.0 GB)
Last Week’s Game Results:
Game 59 | MIN 10, ATH 4: Buxton Drives in Five as Twins Rout A’s in Sacramento
Game 60 | MIN 10, ATH 3: Offense Goes Off in Late Innings, Pablo Goes Down with Injury
Game 61 | MIN 6, ATH 1: Lights-Out Pitching, Power Hitting Propel Twins to Another Win
Twins bullpen: 4 IP, 0 R, 10 K, 1 H, 1 BB
Game 62 | ATH 14, MIN 3: Athletics Ambush Festa, Avoid Sweep with Blowout Victory
Festa: 3.2 IP, 8 ER, 3 HR
Game 63 | TOR 6, MIN 4: Middle Inning Malaise Flips Script as Early Lead Vanishes
Game 64 | TOR 5, MIN 4: Jax Surrenders Costly Homer, Lineup Comes Up Short Again
Game 65 | MIN 6, TOR 3: Twins Overcome Sloppy Play, Ride Bullpen Brilliance to Win
Twins bullpen: 4 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB
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NEWS & NOTES
The Twins were on their way to a second consecutive blowout win over the A’s on Tuesday when Pablo López signaled for trainers during his warmups in the sixth inning. He exited the game with right shoulder tightness, and was later diagnosed with a Grade 2 teres major strain that will sideline him for eight to 12 weeks.
This is the very same injury that Joe Ryan suffered last August, ending his season. While obviously a huge bummer, the good news here is that López – who ranks second only to Byron Buxton among Twins in fWAR (1.6) – has plenty of time to make it back and help the cause. The team is expressing optimism that he can return and make a significant impact in the regular season, let alone the postseason, where he might be their single most important player.
In the meantime, the Twins will need to make do without their No. 1 starter, which they were theoretically as well-equipped as any team in the league to do. They felt confident turning to David Festa, who has pitched very well in the minors and majors this year, for Thursday’s series finale in Sacramento but the righty got blown up for eight runs. Hopefully just a small hiccup because the Twins are going to have to rely on him.
On Friday, Minnesota called up right-hander Travis Adams to relieve a worn-down bullpen, replacing Kody Funderburk who was optioned to St. Paul. Adams has yet to make an appearance but whenever he does he’ll become the fourth Twins player to make his MLB debut this season, joining Luke Keaschall, Carson McCusker and Ryan Fitzgerald. Adams is expected to fill a multi-inning long relief role but as we saw over the weekend, that type of usage can be tough to plan around.
The pitching staff received more meaningful help on Sunday in the form of Danny Coulombe, who was activated from the injured list following just one rehab appearance in Triple-A. The return of Coulombe restores a key piece to Rocco Baldelli‘s late-game mix, but this reinforcement comes at a cost – we learned on Sunday that Zebby Matthews will be joining López on the injured list, after being diagnosed with his own shoulder strain. He’ll be out for an undetermined amount of time. It looks like Simeon Woods Richardson, who was scratched from his scheduled start with the Saints on Sunday, will be recalled to replace him.
Carlos Correa had a bit of a scare with his back, which flared up in Sacramento – evidently because of how much he was sliding around in the batter’s box in a minor-league ballpark. “It’s the worst box I’ve ever stepped in,” he told reporters. Correa, who has a history of back problems, sat out the last two games of the A’s series and the first game of the Blue Jays series, but was back in the lineup for Minnesota on Saturday and Sunday. Twins players intimated that field conditions at Sutter Health Park played a role in López’s injury, and it’s also worth noting that Matthews last pitched in the ballpark before landing on the IL with his injury.
HIGHLIGHTS
At long last, Royce Lewis is showing signs of breaking free from his unrelenting slump, which dates back to August of last year. He’s shown occasional flashes this season, but this past week Lewis really seemed to be turning a corner, going 7-for-16 with two doubles, five walks and just three strikeouts. Lewis reached base all four times in Friday night’s game against Toronto, and then reached in all three trips on Sunday after entering as a pinch-hitter.
Willi Castro, meanwhile, continues to heat up. He had another two-homer game against the Athletics on Tuesday, helping key a 10-3 blowout, and was 9-for-23 with four walks on the week, showing power and patience that were both amiss throughout the first two months.
A few other outstanding performers for the Twins offense in a week that saw them score 43 runs across seven games:
Trevor Larnach and Matt Wallner are bringing the left-handed thump that this lineup badly needs, with both homering twice. Larnach has seemingly earned his way into everyday entrenchment near the top of Rocco’s lineups, even against lefty starters. Wallner has homered three times in seven games since coming off the IL, and seems like he’s still shaking off the rust.
Ryan Jeffers went 5-for-16 with a double, a homer and three walks. His .357 wOBA ranked fifth among major-league catchers entering play on Sunday. He’s an underrated linchpin in the Twins’ lineup.
Ty France has been unexceptional overall but he’s doing what the Twins signed him to do: get on base. He did so steadily in the past week with 10 hits, a walk and two more HBPs that pushed his league-leading total to 12. He has reached base in 20 consecutive games, becoming the first Minnesota hitter to do so since Edouard Julien in 2023. France also hasn’t slowed down with the clutch-hitting heroics, now batting .381 with runners in scoring position.
In the bullpen, the Twins keep on riding Louis Varland hard, and he keeps on responding in a big way. Varland pitched three times in Minnesota’s seven games, striking out six over three scoreless innings. He has appeared in almost exactly half of the team’s games so far, putting him on track for one of the highest appearance totals in franchise history, and is holding up very well under the heavy usage, seemingly getting better and stronger as the year goes on.
Unleashing maxed-out stuff in a short-burst relief role, Varland is averaging 98 MPH with his four-seam fastball and carving hitters up with an overpowering knuckle curve, which is yielding a .140 batting average and generating whiffs on 43.7% of swings.
One final point of positivity worth noting: Byron Buxton drew three walks for the first time in his career on Sunday. This came on the heels of a two-walk game on Friday night. Buck’s bat went mostly quiet after he picked up four hits in the first two games against the A’s, but finding a way to still get his speed aboard when that’s the case adds another dimension to his game. He has now drawn 12 walks in his past 15 games after drawing five in his first 34.
Mainly I’m just really glad to see Buxton tracking the ball so well and taking at-bats of this quality after the concussion scare. It strikes me as a very reassuring sign.
LOWLIGHTS
The strength of their rotation was one of the biggest reasons to believe in this Minnesota Twins team, and to an extent, it still is. But attrition is striking this group in a major way here in June. The loss of López is pretty devastating, and adding Matthews on top is a double-whammy of dire proportions. Subtracting these two arms from the picture dramatically lowers the rotation’s floor and ceiling, especially when you look at what remains.
Woods Richardson is returning after being demoted to the minors for performance reasons earlier in the season. Festa got crushed in his first start back, and himself has dealt with arm fatigue. Then we have Bailey Ober. He gave up five earned runs on Friday, his worst start since the season-opening clunker, although that in of itself was not overly alarming. He still tossed seven innings and gave the Twins a chance to win.
One aspect of Ober’s start that was eye-catching, however, was his diminished velocity. That’s been a larger trend for him this year but was really stark in this game, where his fastball averaged just 89.3 MPH, his lowest mark ever in 101 major-league starts. Ober says he’s healthy and attributes the velo struggles to mechanics issues that he is working to solve.
Joe Ryan seems to be the sole rotation member with no durability concerns attached at the moment, and he of course missed most the second half last year with his own shoulder injury. The pressure is now more intense than ever for him overcome that final hurdle by staying healthy and effective through the full schedule.
Ryan’s gonna need to be the de facto ace of this rotation for the time being, and the Twins need him to pitch like one. He didn’t necessarily look the part this past week, allowing seven runs (six earned) over 10 innings in his two starts while uncharacteristically struggling to throw the ball in the zone.
The Twins also need their back-end bullpen stalwarts to pitch up to their standards. Griffin Jax gave up a leadoff double and then a go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning on Saturday night. Jhoan Durán gave up a run on two hits in the ninth. These ones hurt in an eventual 5-4 loss. You can’t expect perfection from these guys, and that’s more or less what they’ve been delivering of late – Jax had a 1.32 ERA in May, Durán 0.60 – but the lapses are going to be painful given their extremely high-leverage roles for a team that is now back to playing close games on a daily basis. To their credit, both Jax and Durán bounced back with scoreless innings in Sunday’s 6-3 win over Toronto.
TRENDING STORYLINE
Last year, Simeon Woods Richardson was a life-saver for the rotation, stepping in early to deliver steady and solid work as the team’s fifth starter. Is he ready to reprise that role? The Twins have an equally urgent need for quality innings now with two key starters going down, and they’d be thrilled with the kind of performance SWR provided for a majority of his rookie season.
In his first eight starts with the Twins this year, prior to being swapped out for Matthews in mid-May, Woods Richardson was not up to snuff, and trending the wrong way. He completed five innings in only three of those starts, and got bombed by the Orioles for six runs in his final turn before the demotion.
The right-hander made just three starts at Triple-A before being recalled, but for what it’s worth his numbers there were encouraging: 17 innings, 19 strikeouts, four walks. Efficient work and relatively deep outings – that’s what the Twins will want to see from him this time around. Woods Richardson will be pushed into the grinder right away with two starts in his first week back, scheduled to start Tuesday’s opener against Texas and Sunday’s finale against Houston.
LOOKING AHEAD
After getting a break on Monday, the Twins will open another series at Target Field on Tuesday, welcoming the Texas Rangers into town for a three-game series. The Rangers have struggled mightily on the road this season with a 10-22 record. From there, the Twins head to Houston for a weekend series against the first-place Astros, who have been very good at home where they are 22-12.
TUESDAY, JUNE 10: RANGERS @ TWINS — RHP Tyler Mahle v. RHP Simeon Woods Richardson
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11: RANGERS @ TWINS — RHP Jack Leiter v. RHP David Festa
THURSDAY, JUNE 12: RANGERS @ TWINS — LHP Patrick Corbin v. RHP Bailey Ober
FRIDAY, JUNE 13: TWINS @ ASTROS — RHP Chris Paddack v. LHP Colton Gordon
SATURDAY, JUNE 14: TWINS @ ASTROS — RHP Joe Ryan v. RHP Hunter Brown
SUNDAY, JUNE 15: TWINS @ ASTROS — RHP Simeon Woods Richardson v. RHP Lance McCullers Jr.