CHICAGO -- The Twins felt it was only a matter of time before their bats got rolling.
Even after the shutout loss to kick off the series in Chicago on Monday, Minnesota remained confident that it had the right players in-house. They just needed to find a way to tap into it.
¡°Collectively as a group, you've got to put those great at-bats [together] like other teams have been doing,¡± shortstop Carlos Correa said after Monday¡¯s loss. ¡°I think we're capable of doing that. I'm very optimistic about the way our roster is constructed, and I think we're going to be in a good spot, but we've got to adjust quick. We cannot keep dragging with the way we've been playing.¡±
It didn¡¯t take too much longer for the dragging to come to a halt. Though White Sox starter Shane Smith held the Twins off the board for another 5 2/3 innings Tuesday night in his MLB debut, a pair of two-out walks by Smith forced Chicago to bring in reliever Penn Murfee. Just 10 pitches later, four singles and a hit-by-pitch brought in five Minnesota runs, giving the Twins a lead they wouldn¡¯t relinquish in the 8-3 win at Rate Field.
¡°We needed that. We needed that bad,¡± said first baseman Ty France. ¡°We¡¯ve put together a lot of good at-bats the last four games. It was nice to finally be rewarded.¡±
Minnesota entered Tuesday with some of the Major Leagues¡¯ worst offensive numbers. The team as a whole held MLB¡¯s lowest batting average (.143), lowest OPS (.436) and fewest runs scored (six). That was a leading cause of the Twins¡¯ 0-4 start.
Even early on Tuesday, Minnesota struggled to put runs on the board. The offense had managed two hits, two walks and had two runners in scoring position through five. At that point, the White Sox had built a 3-0 lead. It seemed like the Twins were about to drop a series to a team they went 12-1 against in 2024.
The lack of early offense wasn¡¯t completely on the Twins. They had five hard-hit balls through the first five frames; none resulted in a baserunner.
¡°[In the fourth], where it was [center fielder Byron Buxton at] 109 [mph exit velocity], [left fielder] Trevor [Larnach] 111, me 110,¡± said catcher Ryan Jeffers, ¡°I think that was the point where, like, ¡®Golly. You can¡¯t make this up.¡¯¡±
With two outs in the sixth, though, the Twins finally got hits to fall.
Minnesota was aggressive against Murfee, with only one plate appearance reaching three pitches. As opposed to the hard-hit frustrations they experienced earlier, all four of the Twins¡¯ hits in the sixth were under 95 mph exit velocity. At last, Minnesota¡¯s offense put on the board the kind of crooked number that had eluded the team to begin the season.
And then, just to put a stamp on the scoring, pinch-hitter Harrison Bader hit a three-run homer in the ninth -- the Twins¡¯ only hit out of 11 hard-hit balls.
¡°It just felt like nothing was going our way,¡± France said. ¡°To finally put together a good rally, put together a bunch of good at-bats, a handful of singles, just a good inning overall. It was nice that it finally went our way.¡±
¡°There were some scalded baseballs out there that didn't amount to anything, but we stayed on it,¡± manager Rocco Baldelli said. ¡°We didn't relent.¡±
Minnesota was far from being in panic mode on April 1, but going into another day without a "1" in the "W" column would¡¯ve been less than ideal. The team needed an offensive effort like the one it received Tuesday.
¡°It¡¯s a process-over-results game, especially this early in the season,¡± Jeffers said. ¡°We feel really good coming from spring. We feel really good with the process that we¡¯ve kind of put in place. We feel really good with the personnel we¡¯ve got. It¡¯s not that we were striking out all the time. We were putting together good at-bats. We were hitting the ball hard, and you know it¡¯s going to come around when you¡¯re doing that.¡±