KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Rather than sit down with the media Sunday afternoon, Rocco Baldelli saved all his talking for a fiery postgame clubhouse rant directed at his players.
Following the completion of a pathetic weekend series that ended with a 2-0 loss to the Kansas City Royals, Baldelli made a terse statement to the media that delivered a louder message than he could have by taking 10 minutes of questions.
“That was an unprofessional series of baseball that we just played and that’s my only comment,” Baldelli said before noting he wouldn’t take questions. “I’m not commenting on anything else. I don’t think anything else really has to be said so you guys can run with that and go for it, but that’s all I got.”
By winning all three contests, Kansas City increased its lead over the Twins to 2 1/2 games for the second wild-card spot in the American League playoffs.
Capping off a 2-5 road trip, the Twins were shut down by Michael Wacha and two relievers who combined for a five-hit shutout. Meanwhile, the Royals scored their only runs on a sacrifice fly and 59.9 mph infield single by Salvador Perez.
Shut out twice, the Twins finished the series with two runs and 14 hits and they went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position. The team’s once-comfortable lead in the wild-card race is down to 3 1/2 games over Seattle and Detroit. Here are three Twins takeaways from the weekend.
Baldelli waits to offer harsh criticism
Often it’s appropriate to wait and see what the response is to a significant failure before offering a critical assessment. Baldelli clearly waited until after Sunday’s game to do the same.
Following Saturday night’s gut-punch loss, the Twins’ attempt at an answer Sunday was to wilt, so Baldelli pounced.
The Twins had a chance to show what they were made of Sunday by bouncing back with a statement win to at least salvage a rough weekend. They responded with a dud.
They mounted only one serious threat on Sunday and their first-inning rally quickly went sideways as third-base coach Tommy Watkins made another aggressive send that didn’t work out and Royce Lewis continued a massive slump with a strikeout to strand two.
From there, the Twins, who scored in only one of 27 innings in Kansas City, produced three more base runners. Two were quickly wiped out by double plays.
The effort apparently sent Baldelli over the edge. After forcing players to sit in silence for several minutes, Baldelli entered the room and lit into his club like never before. Catcher Ryan Jeffers said it’s the angriest he’s seen Baldelli in four seasons together, and he appreciated the effort.
“He’s tried the rah-rah (speech) and the pump-up,” Jeffers said. “It was time for that. Maybe now is the time for the kick in the ass.”
Jeffers thinks his manager chose Sunday because the Twins are headed home for a favorable matchup against the Los Angeles Angels, one the team can’t afford to waste with its wild-card lead shrinking.
Asked about being described as “unprofessional,” Jeffers said he didn’t see Baldelli as suggesting the Twins quit on themselves. Jeffers instead believed it was a statement about the team’s enthusiasm.
“(It’s about) not having a sense of urgency that’s needed to win baseball games like that, the fire needs to be under your ass to win a game like that,” Jeffers said. “It all starts with a hit. We weren’t able to string stuff together and a lot of times when you start building those innings, they’re led by long at-bats or taking a big-time walk, the next guy hits a double and you score. That’s more of the, let’s not try and just hit the ball out. There’s just so many different ways we have to be better.”
Signs the Twins are pressing are everywhere
Few teams could use a breakout offensive series as much as the Twins. The team’s struggles at the plate are making everyone press.
Trying to generate runs any way he could, Watkins made another bad send from the third-base box on Sunday, his second of the series. Similar to Kyle Farmer in Friday’s loss, Jose Miranda ran out of gas as he tried to score from first base. Already a slow runner, Miranda, like Farmer, was easily thrown out at home, nabbed by two picture-perfect Royals relays.
Were the Twins scoring more frequently, they could afford to be more selective on when to push it on the bases than they have been.
Had the Twins scored at least one more run Saturday, Baldelli likely would have had a longer rope for Bailey Ober, who was about as in control of his start as any Twins starting pitcher has been this season.
You could even see the typically sound Brooks Lee making a risky decision in the eighth inning Saturday on Tommy Pham’s game-tying grounder. Neither Royce Lewis nor Lee had an easy play on the grounder and Lee chose to make a throw that even if it were perfect had little chance of being successful. He rushed the throw and it skipped by Farmer, which allowed the go-ahead run to advance to third on the throwing error.
In short, a big Twins’ blowout would ease a lot of tension.
More on Saturday’s decision to pull Ober
Baldelli was resolute Sunday morning in his decision to remove Ober on Saturday and call upon Jhoan Duran with the Twins ahead by two runs.
Baldelli chose Duran because normally using a pitcher with the closer’s 101 mph fastball is a better choice than sticking with a pitcher who already had thrown 83 pitches. If he’d stuck with Ober and the Royals rallied, Baldelli would have had a harder time living with that decision than seeing one of his top relievers fail.
While seeing Ober at least start the eighth inning would be my preference, it’s hard to argue with the decision to call upon Duran, who is playoff-tested and has succeeded in big spots for three seasons. This is how Baldelli has managed the Twins for the last few years with plenty of success to show for it. The end result was ghastly, but similar situations have worked out for the Twins far more often than not.
(Photo of Jose Miranda getting tagged out by Freddy Fermin in the first inning: Ed Zurga / Getty Images)
