BOSTON — It's hard to know if this is the new normal for the 2021 Twins. But the signs aren't good.
Minnesota's week of East Coast misery came to a merciful end Thursday night with the worst drubbing of the bunch, a 12-2 embarrassment in Fenway Park. Bobby Dalbec homered twice for the Red Sox, Rafael Devers once, and if there was comfort to be taken by the overmatched visitors at all, it was this: They didn't get no-hit.
That seemed no lock for the first hour, given the pedigree of their opponent: Chris Sale and his long history of beating the Twins, more than any active pitcher except Justin Verlander. Sale issued a first-inning walk to Brent Rooker but otherwise retired almost nonchalantly the first 14 Twins hitters he faced, even striking out Nick Gordon, Andrelton Simmons and Rob Refsnyder on the minimum nine pitches in the third inning.
Sale's shot at history finally ended at his feet, when Ryan Jeffers chopped a slow dribbler up the third-base line, a ball that Sale waited futilely to hop foul as Jeffers raced to first base. Two pitches later, Willians Astudillo punctuated the moment by blasting an errant slider off the Plymouth Rock billboard atop the left-field wall, and the Twins had a face-saving score as Sale simply resumed recording outs.
But if the Twins' lineup salvaged something Thursday, the pitching — oh, the pitching — did not. A dozen runs allowed in the finale sent the Twins home a chastened bunch, having allowed six or more runs in all six games at Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park, five of them losses. The Twins were outscored 53-28 on the trip, with responsibility almost equally divided between a depleted rotation (29 runs) and a ragtag bullpen (24).
Things got so bad, Astudillo pitched an inning that was either comical or dismal in its half-speed abdication. Kyle Schwarber passively accepted a four-pitch walk, almost reluctantly jogged to second base when a hobbled Jeffers slowly chased a pitch that reached the screen, then generously remained on third base when Gordon's throw from third got past first baseman Miguel Sano.
But Astudillo on the mound is a sideshow. The Twins' pitching staff, stripped and savaged by trades, demotions and breakdowns — and with a whopping 11 pitchers on the injured list — is not supposed to be. Yet many of the leftovers appeared largely powerless to stop opponents from scoring this week, admittedly against two of the hotter and stronger teams in the American League.
John Gant got the start on Thursday, and for the second time on this trip, surrendered runs at a run-an-inning clip, four in four this time. Dalbec's first home run of the night was the biggest blow, made worse by the back-to-back walks Gant issued to start the inning.
Kyle Barraclough followed, turning two hits and a walk into another Boston run. Then came righthander Edgar Garcia, whose five-out tenure included a little of everything: four hits, three walks, a wild pitch, a hit batter, two home runs and seven runs.
Thirty-five games remain. It's reasonable to ask whether any pitchers will.
