MINNEAPOLIS -- All throughout spring training, the Minnesota Twins preached attention to detail, something new manager Paul Molitor hoped to instill.
Through seven games of the 2015 season, that attention to detail has been lacking -- particularly on defense.
One day after committing several defensive miscues against the White Sox, the Twins booted the ball around several times in Monday's 12-3 loss to Kansas City in Minnesota's home opener at Target Field. The Twins committed a pair of errors on routine plays and had a few more mishaps in the field en route to their fourth home-opening loss in as many years.
Monday's lopsided defeat dropped Minnesota to 1-6 to start the year. This wasn't exactly what Molitor had in mind when he took the job this offseason.
"They're physical mistakes, but they should be correctable at this level, obviously," Molitor said after Monday's nine-run loss, the largest deficit in a home opener in Twins history. "These guys are talented. They've played a while. We're just not making plays."
One of Minnesota's more egregious miscues on defense came in the fourth inning when former Twin Kendrys Morales led off the inning. He sent a fly ball down the left-field line that Twins left fielder Oswaldo Arcia couldn't make a play on. Though the ball was not necessarily a lazy fly to left, it was a play Arcia should have made. It was magnified, too, by the fact that Royals left fielder Alex Gordon made a nice catch to end the third inning just a few minutes earlier.
Morales eventually was out on a fielder's choice and didn't score, but that play was yet another in a growing list of defensive lapses for the Twins.
Arcia also had a ball bounce off his glove in left-center field after a long run. That resulted in an RBI double for Eric Hosmer.
Another miscue came in the sixth inning when right fielder Torii Hunter, a 19-year major-league veteran, was charged with an error. Hunter, who never had more than four errors in a year during his first 11 seasons with the Twins, was charged with a throwing error on Lorenzo Cain's sixth-inning double. Cain scored one batter later in what turned out to be a three-run inning for the Royals.
"It was a terrible throw. I don't remember the last time I had a throwing error," said Hunter, a nine-time Gold Glove winner. "Defense, trust me, we spent a lot of time on defense this spring training. Just to come here, the last couple days the defense has been not us. But I definitely think it's going to get better. It's uphill from here."
The Twins' second error of the day came in the eighth inning when shortstop Danny Santana couldn't handle what appeared to be a routine grounder to short off the bat of Salvador Perez. With the bases loaded, Perez hit a roller to Santana that the Twins shortstop tried to backhand. He bobbled the ball and was unable to make a play at home plate, allowing the Royals to score to make it a 7-3 game. That kept the door open for more runs in the eighth as Kansas City closed out the top half of the inning with an 11-3 lead.
Santana spent most of his first major-league season in 2014 playing out of position in center field but has since returned to his natural position at shortstop. He did play 34 games at shortstop last season but spent most of his time (69 games) in center field. Monday was his first error of the young season.
Not much has gone right for the Twins through seven games. The starting pitching has been roughed up, the bullpen has struggled, and Minnesota hasn't scored a ton of runs. The defense, however, might be the most troubling aspect.
In Sunday's loss, Eduardo Nunez dropped a routine fly ball in left field, and Eduardo Escobar did the same thing at third base en route to Minnesota's 6-2 loss. It was more of the same Monday as the Twins were left looking for answers about their defensive efforts.
"All these fans came out to see the Twins play and we didn't play Twins baseball. I don't know what we played. Bad News Bears baseball," Hunter said.
"We've just got to keep working, whether it's come early, take some ground balls or take some fly balls, some different routes. All you can do is control those things. In the field, relax a little bit. Just have some fun."
Follow Tyler Mason on Twitter
