Bill Batterman is the Sometimes baseball isn’t fair.
Entering June, the Brewers sported a 26-28 record and stood eight-and-a-half back of the first-place Cardinals. The Twins, meanwhile, were 24-29 and eleven-and-a-half behind the Tigers, good for fourth place in the competitive American League Central.
Since then, the Brewers have gone a respectable 14-13 and have climbed to within four-and-a-half of the Cardinals and just three games out of the top spot in the National League Wild Card standings. The Twins, on the other hand, have posted a Major League-best 18-7 record during June but are still eleven games behind Detroit. Even worse, Minnesota is eight-and-a-half back of the White Sox in the AL Wild Card race and still looking up at both the Yankees and Blue Jays.
The Twins’ run has been fueled in large part to a dominating performance against the National League. Entering this weekend’s series, the Twinkies are 13-2 against the Senior Circuit, tied with the Tigers and Mariners for second-best in baseball behind the 14-1 Red Sox. Riding a seven-game winning streak and winners of 15 of their last 16, the Twins are fresh off consecutive sweeps of the Cubs and Dodgers and have not lost a series since early in the month.
Minnesota’s turnaround can arguably be traced back to their series in Milwaukee that began on May 19th. After losing five in a row including a sweep by the Tigers, the team’s offense exploded for 26 runs en route to a two-games-to-one series win over the Brewers. Since then, only a brief speed-bump on the West Coast early this month has slowed down the Minnesota juggernaut; in total, the Twins are 23-10 since their departure from Miller Park.
What has been responsible for the Twins’ resurgence? In a word, pitching. Twin Cities hurlers have allowed a league-low 78 runs during June and have held opposing batters to an embarrassing .237/.277/.363 line. Ace Johan Santana leads the league with a 2.59 ERA and has an otherworldly 124-to-20 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 118 and a third innings while phenom Francisco Liriano is 8-1 with a 2.21 ERA and 82-to-19 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 73 and a third innings. Thanks in large part to their two-headed southpaw monster, the Twins rank sixth overall in the AL in ERA and first with 545 strikeouts, 7.19 strikeouts per nine innings, and 3.24 strikeouts per walk. In the latter category, the Twins are pacing the junior circuit by almost a strikeout and have posted a remarkable 4.09 K/BB ratio during June.
On the other hand, Minnesota ranks just eighth in the AL in runs scored during June despite jettisoning sinkholes Tony Batista and Juan Castro and has continued to struggle to hit home runs. On the season, the Twins rank ahead of only the Royals with 68 homers and are eleventh in the league with a .408 slugging average. Justin Morneau tops the team in both categories with 19 longballs and a .558 slugging average while Joe Mauer is hitting an unbelievable .392/.458/.538 to lead the world in batting average. Mauer’s 996 OPS is good for twelfth in baseball and the catcher ranks second in the MLB in Value Over Replacement Player, just behind the Indians’ Travis Hafner.
After Morneau, Mauer, and third-baseman-turned-right-fielder Michael Cuddyer (.272/.373/.513), however, manager Ron Gardenhire is penciling in a lineup filled with mediocre offensive performers. Torii Hunter (.265/.343/.431) is performing about as well as could be expected but newcomer Luis Castillo (.272/.330/.341) is posting offensive numbers well below his career averages and is just seven-for-twelve in stolen base attempts. The team’s top free agent acquisition, Rondell White, has been an unmitigated disaster; the Twins have invested 181 at-bats into the 34-year old and have been rewarded with a .182/.209/.215 line and not a single home run from the career .285 hitter.
The Brewers will bring a struggling offense to the Metrodome, having hit a combined .239/.314/.396 during June for a 710 OPS, third-worst in the National League. Carlos Lee has continued to mash (.320/.348/.621 during the month) but key cogs like Rickie Weeks (.223/.325/.320), Geoff Jenkins (.235/.308/.272), and Damian Miller (.222/.290/.317) have struggled mightily as the temperatures rise and the All-Star break approaches.
The team’s pitching staff has picked up at least some of the slack and ranks fifth in the league with a 4.33 June ERA but the Crew has allowed the eleventh most runs in the NL during the month. Reliever Dan Kolb has been particularly ineffective, allowing 14 runs and 18 hits in eleven and a third innings in eleven June appearances.
The visiting Twins took two of three from the Brewers in their first meeting of 2006 and hold a 19-18 interleague series lead against their interstate rivals. The Brewers are 198-204 all-time against the Twins including 91-108 in Minnesota.