Twins head home with plenty to improve upon after opening road trip
With one week of the season completed, the Minnesota Twins are heading home -- and they do so with plenty of issues to fix.
Following Sunday's 6-2 loss to the White Sox in Chicago, Minnesota is now 1-5 after its first road trip in advance of Monday's home opener at Target Field. No facet of the game has been as good as the Twins had hoped before the 2015 season started.
Sunday saw the Twins falter in several areas. Minnesota's defense was particularly notable -- and not in a good way -- in the loss to Chicago. Twins left fielder Eduardo Nunez dropped a lazy fly ball in the second inning that led to a three-base error. Later in the inning, third baseman Eduardo Escobar couldn't handle a routine pop fly for what would have been the third out.
Neither runner scored -- the Twins turned a play at the plate to erase the Nunez gaffe -- and neither Nunez nor Escobar regularly play the positions they were playing Sunday. Still, it was not a good look for Minnesota defensively as the fundamentals were lacking.
Catcher Kurt Suzuki also had a foul pop up that he didn't corral after it appeared Suzuki didn't see the ball initially and couldn't recover in time. Those added up for Twins starter Phil Hughes, who topped the 50-pitch mark by the second inning.
"I don't think there's a lot you can tell people when they drop fly balls. We all know it's windy and there's sun and those conditions," said Twins first-year manager Paul Molitor. "I don't think it was unfocused or anything. It was just kind of strange to see it happen three times in a game. . . . Phil had to get at least three extra outs, if not more, because of some of those plays today."
Offensively, the Twins have scored just 13 runs in six games, an average of 2.17 runs per game. That includes Friday's 6-0 win over Chicago, the one time the Twins' lineup truly broke out. Before that, though, the Twins were shut out for the first two games in Detroit and scored just one run in that series finale with the Tigers. In four of Minnesota's six games, the Twins scored two or fewer runs.
Pitching has been a struggle early, too, both in the starting rotation and out of the bullpen. Sunday's game was more a case of the latter as right-hander Blaine Boyer allowed three runs in the eighth inning to turn a 3-2 White Sox lead into a 6-2 game.
"I think with Blaine, he's trying so hard. He had such a good spring," Molitor said. "He's just catching too much of the plate and guys are making him pay right now."
Boyer, a new face in Minnesota after pitching for San Diego last year, has now allowed six runs on 11 hits in just 3 1/3 innings in relief this season. The Twins' bullpen as a whole now has an ERA of 4.58 through the first six games.
Hughes righted the ship after a rough start to Sunday's game and allowed three runs in six innings. In general, though, Minnesota's starting pitching has not been very sharp through six games. Even Hughes, the Twins' best pitcher last season, allowed four runs in six innings in his season debut. Ricky Nolasco faltered in his only start thus far (six runs in three innings), as did right-hander Kyle Gibson (six runs in 3 1/3 innings).
This marks the first time the Twins have started a season with a 1-5 record since 2006. Minnesota happened to win the American League Central that year, but this year's club doesn't have that same expectation after four straight 90-plus loss seasons.
Minnesota opens up its home schedule Monday afternoon against the defending American League champion Kansas City Royals, who entered Sunday with a perfect 5-0 record. Molitor's team will play the Royals six times in the next nine games, including three in Kansas City. If the Twins can't fix some of the issues that plagued them in the first week of the season, they could find themselves falling behind in the AL Central in a hurry.
FOX Sports North's Jamie Hersch contributed to this report.
Follow Tyler Mason on Twitter
