The Twins’ offense was supposed to keep the team somewhat competitive this season, but Ron Gardenhire’s nightly lineups are a far cry from carrying the Twins right now.
The Twins have had unacceptable three-hit performances in three of the last four games, and four of the last eight overall.
“If you look at our batting average, overall, up and down, it’s not where we need to be,” manager Ron Gardenhire told the Pioneer Press following Sunday’s loss to Detroit. “It’s not from a lack of work, but it has to show up on the field. That’s one part we haven’t done. Our pitching’s coming along pretty decent, but we’ve got to score runs for these guys.”
The Twins are No. 22 in MLB with a team batting average of .242. They’re hitting .253 with runners in scoring position.
Justin Morneau (.343) and Joe Mauer (.300) are the only Twins everyday starters hitting above .300 with runners in scoring position.
Joe Vavra, who was relieved of his hitting coach duties at the end of the 2012 season, is now the third base coach. Tom Powers chatted with Vavra about the art of sending runners around third — an art that he hasn’t been using as much as he’d like.
