The Minnesota Twins have struggled with injuries, bad luck, and poor performance when it mattered the most, and have, to their credit, looked for new ways all season to embarrass themselves further.
The attitude can be fully expressed by their season series with the White Sox. It seems that the Twins often have a bit of momentum heading into their games with Chicago, and they are rather spirited affairs. The series have led to wars of words, questions about the sanctity of unwritten rules, and generally bad blood between the two teams.
I’m sorry, not bad blood, what’s the word? Annoyance, maybe? Consider the two big news stories out of the White Sox and Twins this year. First, was the fact that the Twins were upset that Yermin Mercedes hit a home run on a 3-0 pitch during a blow out off of a position player in Willians Astudillo. The second was that, after yesterday’s game, Lucas Giolito had an exchange of words with Josh Donaldson, as Donaldson homered and said something about hands not being sticky, in reference to the MLB crackdown on foreign substances, inferring that Giolito had been among the cheaters.
What is an important sidebar to all of this is illustrated deftly by Giolito.
"We won. The 'W' is next to my name. They're in last place."
Lucas Giolito goes OFF on Josh Donaldson pic.twitter.com/xFwsEIX4WA
— White Sox Talk (@NBCSWhiteSox) June 30, 2021
Well, that’s a good point. The best point, really. And the Twins, for all their talk, don’t seem to be envigored by their misgivings, or the direct challenge of their biggest rival. The day after this tete a tete, the Twins are down, once again, by double digits.
Not only are they getting smoked on the baseball field, but also in the media. At some point, I guess, it’s not enough to be disappointing, they also need to be embarrassing.
It’s time to admit, especially for all of those who believe that this stretch of games is the team’s “last chance to turn things around” that the Twins aren’t just a team down on it’s luck, but rather a gutless group that constitutes a bad baseball team.
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