Coming unglued are the Minnesota Twins, who just got swept by the MLB-leading Houston Astros on Wednesday, 17-6, to cap off their three-game series.
The Twins have lost four straight overall and are now deadlocked with the Cleveland Indians for the AL Central lead. Their offense hasn’t lost much power, though, as they’ve scored an average of five-and-a-half runs during that skid. Catcher Jason Castro still hasn’t cooled off at that, as he had one of his team’s three homers on Wednesday to extend his personal hit streak to six games.
What’s been the main problem for Minnesota is its pitching cast. The team has given up a total of 48 runs in that four-game span with no less than seven runs surrendered in each of those losses.
The Twins now have to rely on the arm of Adalberto Mejia (1-1, 4.64 ERA) against Los Angeles this Thursday to hopefully snap out of their funk. Since returning from a month-long demotion to Triple-A, Mejia’s has bounced back rather nicely in his last couple of starts, surrendering just five earned runs in 12 innings of work.
However, it’s really been Minny’s bullpen that has struggled late in games. The team’s relievers have allowed a staggering 27 earned runs across just nine innings to date, and they might have another rough going against the surprisingly competent Angels ahead.
The Los Angeles Angels survive yet another contest without perennial MVP candidate Mike Trout, as they escaped with a narrow win over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday, 2-1.
The Halos went 2-1 in their three-game series against the Braves despite the absence of Trout in the batting order as he’s set to miss six to eight weeks to recover from a torn ligament in his left thumb.
Unlike their 9-3 victory on Tuesday, though, the Angels barely got enough offense going to pull away with the victory in the series finale. On the bright side, Eric Young Jr. – son of former All-Star and Silver Slugger by the same name – knocked his first home run of the season out of the park in Wednesday’s win.
Young’s go-ahead run, coupled with Albert Pujol’s quest for his 600th-career homer, should inspire enough confidence for Los Angeles’ often middling offense. The team’s batters really need to take advantage of the ailing Minnesota bullpen, as nothing is guaranteed with Alex Meyer (2-2, 5.79 ERA) stepping up to the mound on Thursday. Meyer missed his last scheduled start with back spasms and his previous outing isn’t encouraging, either. He allowed four runs in just four innings in a losing effort against the underperfoming Mets.
But with the Twins reeling to kick off their 10-game road trip, the upper hand has still got to go with the home team. The Angels have won seven of their last nine games in Anaheim, having outscored their opponents by a combined 20 runs during that stretch.
Writer’s Prediction
The Angels (-117) take the first bout of their four-game set against the Twins, 4-2.
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