MINNEAPOLIS — The metaphor for the start of this season for the Minnesota Twins is obvious: one big swing and a miss.
The Twins have lost all seven of the games they’ve played, and the leading culprit is their performance at the plate. They’re last in the majors with 13 runs, a serious problem rooted in an alarming lack of contact.
Their 79 strikeouts are more than their combination of hits (51) and walks (21).
“We’ve got to continue to work on that, because it’s been glaring so far,” Manager Paul Molitor said after the Twins lost their fifth straight home opener, a 4-1 defeat to the Chicago White Sox on Monday.
They reduced their rate a bit by striking out seven times in that game, still too many on an afternoon when they managed only one extra-base hit.
“Guys are struggling,” Molitor said, “and I’m sure there’s some pressing going on.”
The 2013 Houston Astros, who finished 51-111, have the major league record with 1,535 strikeouts. That’s an average of 9.5 per game. The sample size for the 2016 Twins is unfairly and almost ridiculously small, but for the sake of comparison they’re on pace to crush the record and whiff a whopping 1,828 times.
ASTROS: Former Houston Astros and San Francisco Giants general manager H.B. “Spec” Richardson died at the age of 93.
The Muscogee County coroner’s office confirmed Richardson died at his home in Columbus, Georgia, due to natural causes.
Richardson was general manager of the Astros from 1967-75 and was the Giants’ GM from 1976-80.
YANKEES: Reliever Nick Rumbelow has a torn elbow ligament and needs Tommy John surgery that will sideline him until next year.
MLB: Major League Baseball will fund 30 four-year Jackie Robinson Foundation scholarships, one for each of the sport’s teams, and will contribute $1 million to the project to build a Robinson museum in New York.
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