May 16. Ah, the memories.
It was the day Byron Buxton touted, “We nasty. We dangerous.”
The Minnesota Twins had just defeated Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers and Buxton was feeling really good about the team’s direction. Heck, you would’ve been excited too if you were one of the centerpieces of a lineup that had just scored 37 runs in four games.
Since that fateful day, the Twins have, for lack of a better term, sucked. They’ve won 7 of 17 games and scored three or fewer runs ten times. Nasty? Yes. Dangerous? No.
In the 17 games since Buxton’s curse the Twins are slashing .235/.323/.386 with 20 homers and 63 runs. The big problem is that Twins batters have struck out 31.1% of the time, which is far and away the worst strikeout rate in the majors.
Minnesota’s batting average on balls they actually put in play is .326, which ranks seventh since May 17. Simple stuff: Hit the ball and good things happen.
Last season, the league average strikeout rate was 22.4%. The Twins are dead last in the majors this season at 26.8% and their 613 strikeouts is 199 more than the Washington Nationals, who have struck out an MLB low 414 times.
The worst offenders on the Twins:
- Joey Gallo – 37.6% (strikeout rate)
- Kyle Garlick – 36.0%
- Trevor Larnach – 34,9%
- Michael A. Taylor – 34.8%
- Edouard Julien – 34.7%
- Royce Lewis – 32.0%
- Willi Castro – 31.5%
- Ryan Jeffers – 29.1%
- Byron Buxton – 28.8%
- Kyle Farmer – 26.6%
- Christian Vazquez – 24.3%
- Carlos Correa – 23.8%
- Jorge Polanco – 23.7%
- Alex Kirilloff – 22.4%
- Donovan Solano – 22.1%
- Max Kepler – 20.7%
“It just shows how different we are — our mentality and who we are becoming as a team,” Buxton said May 16, according to the Star Tribune. “We didn’t go out there today like, ‘Oh, Kershaw’s pitching.’ It was like, ‘They’re facing the Twins. … You’ve got to pitch to us. We nasty. We dangerous.’ And once we get it clicking, it’s going to be way worse.”
Fun fact: Luis Arraez, who leads the majors with a .392 batting average, has struck out an MLB low in 4.8% of his at-bats.
Anyway, Twins team batting rankings since May 17:
- AVG: .235 – 19th
- OBP: .323 – 12th
- SLG: .386 – 21st
- OPS: .709 – 19th
- Runs: 63 – 26th
- HR: 20 – 12th
- K%: 31.1 – 30th
- BABIP: .326 – 7th
The Twins do have some valid excuses, though the sample size of 60 games says those excuses haven’t really been the difference.
Carlos Correa has missed three straight games after aggravating the plantar fasciitis in his left foot. The Twins hope he won’t miss too much time. Buxton also missed the last three games after taking a 96.7 mph fastball to his ribs. He, too, isn’t expected to miss much more.
But Joey Gallo was placed on the injured list Saturday with a left hamstring strain, so that takes his .186 batting average and team-leading 11 homers out of the lineup.
And who knows if Royce Lewis will need more than Monday’s scheduled off day to rest after he flipped onto his head in a very scary play at first base in Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the Guardians.
