The Twins may have won yesterday, but they scored one run in 9 innings against the ****ING ORIOLES. That is a pathetic offense.
So...offense. Something more important than a lot of people give it credit for.
In 2019, the Twins had a record-setting year on offense. 307 HR, 939 Runs Scored, Top 5 in pretty much every (meaningful) batting stat. However, it went radio silent in the playoffs. Scoring 2.3 runs per game against that Yankees pitching staff is pathetic.
In 2020, the Twins brought back all of the same hitters with one exception: They replaced C.J. Cron with Josh Donaldson in the starting lineup, which would make the offense (on paper) even better. But there was one red flag change: There was a different hitting coach. In 2019, it was James Rowson. In 2020-2021, it’s Edgar Varela. The Twins proceed to have a MASSIVELY disappointing year on offense, that scored exactly 2 (count em TWO!) runs in 2 games against Houston. That’s inexcusable against any pitching staff.
Going into the 2020-2021 offseason, Twins fans seemed to still want pitching and ONLY pitching in the offseason...why? Pitching was an area that needed to be a bit better, but the offense was somehow fine?
I shouldn’t have to tell you that if you score two or fewer runs per game in the playoffs, you will never win more than MAYBE a single game. That’s basic baseball. You could have a rotation of Jacob deGrom, Gerrit Cole, Shane Bieber, Trevor Bauer, and Clayton Kershaw. You will not win if you score <2 runs per game. (Would we really be much happier if we lost 3-1 to the Yankees or 2-1 to the Astros?) In the last 15 Playoff Games the Twins have played in, this is how many runs they’ve scored
ZERO times they score 5+ runs
3 times they scored 4 runs
2 times they scored 3 runs
4 times they scored 2 runs
6 times they scored 1 run
0 times they were shut out
Average runs/game: (3*4 + 2*3 + 4*2 + 6*1)/15 = (12 + 6 + 8 + 6)/15 = 32/15 = 2.1 runs/game.
That is ****ing pathetic. If an MLB team hit like that during the regular season, they would lose 120-130 games. A team cannot survive with that level of offensive ineptitude. And once again, you will not beat any playoff team when you score 2.1 runs/game. Teams like the Yankees have MLB-quality offenses. Not to mention, it seems like the offensive ineptitude has gotten even worse over the losing streak, as they’ve scored 1.6 runs/game the last 10, 1.8 runs the last 5, and ONE run/game the last 3. And why do we just brush this off every time and assume it’s a fluke and that “if we just had an ace pitcher or a dominant closer (or something along those lines) we would be champions” ?
After the 2020 playoff series, we just brushed off the awful offensive performance and assumed that our offense was still good enough, despite the fact that we’ve seen this **** for 20 years now. One might argue, “Most playoff teams have that quality pitching, and you need to consistently keep your opponents to <2 runs/game.” I will tell you that will never happen in the modern game. Don’t be like Cleveland. Even teams like the Dodgers will never keep their opponents to 2.1 runs/game in the playoffs.
The Astros were no different. Didn’t the A’s and Rays wreck the Astros staff in the following series? No, the Twins haven’t consistently faced absolutely dominant ace level pitching. In 2019, they faced Luis Severino, Tanaka, and James Paxton. I don’t see a Gerrit Cole there. In 2020, they faced a mediocre Greinke, Pressly, and a bunch of rookies. Is that absolutely an dominant ace-level staff? No.
What could the solution to this be? One might argue that there isn’t one. And quite frankly, there isn’t a super obvious one. But it’s not acceptable. The Twins will NEVER win ANYTHING in the playoffs if that bolded number up above doesn’t change. And we need to stop pretending that it’s a “bad dream” whereas the bad pitching is reality.
What do you think the answer is?