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The Twins are now 4-14 against the Kansas City Royals in this season's series. That's more like what their numbers used to be against the White Sox every year--but in reverse. Tonight, Andrew Albers' strong performance wasn't able to keep the faltering Twins and their sometimes hopeless offense from dropping another game to the Royals. To make things even more difficult for the struggling offense, Royals starter Danny Duffy has been pretty hot since his return to the Kansas City rotation after Tommy John surgery. Though this was just his fourth start since the surgery, he was able to hold the Twins scoreless in his 6 2/3 innings pitched. He gave up 5 hits, but the Twins weren't able to capitalize on much of anything. He also struck out Minnesota batters 7 times, something that Albers was only able to do to KC batters twice.
To his credit, Albers pitched well enough tonight to keep the Twins in the game. He lasted 7 innings, gave up 6 hits and 3 runs (only 2 earned). He kept the walks to a minimum (a bare minimum--zero walks) and while his efforts were great, the offense couldn't pull anything off. Justin Morneau, provider of the Twins' lone run, hit a home run off Aaron Crow in the 9th inning, and that was that. Casey Fien came in in relief of Albers and allowed 3 runs to score in the 8th inning.
With tonight's loss, the team is on pace for another 90-loss season. Depressing in itself, yes, but I found this quote from Phil Miller's Strib piece to be even more depressing for some reason:
"They know what he’s got, and he knows their hitters pretty good," manager Ron Gardenhire said before the game. "He came in here going over them. He took the lineup card and looked at it, and basically told me what he was going to do to every hitter. He has a plan."
That plan probably included getting a few runs of support from his teammates. That never happened.
Well. There you have it. That Never Happened: The Story of the 2013 Minnesota Twins. I might run with that...
Roll Call
| # | Commenter | # Comments
 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | kenzertz | 75 |
| 2 | twinsgirl197 | 64 |
| 3 | DavidRF | 50 |
| 4 | less cowbell, more 'neau | 49 |
| 5 | WestRiverTwinsFan | 25 |
| 6 | Devereaux | 17 |
| 7 | myjah | 12 |
| 8 | MNWildcat | 8 |
| 9 | MinnyIn505 | 4 |
| 10 | caluofmn | 1 |
| 11 | The Ham Sandwich | 1 |
The always-great Win Expectancy Graph
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2013-08-28&team=Twins&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2013-08-28&team=Twins&dh=0&season=2013">FanGraphs</a></span>
Coming Up..
Tomorrow, the Twins wrap up the series with the Royals (and look to not get swept) with a 12:10 pm game at Target Field. The probable starters are Bruce Chen for the Royals and Sam Deduno for the Twins. Make sure to stop by Twinkie Town for all your gametime needs.