The Twins are up against the formidable Dodgers.
For Minnesota fans who have watched their hometown team swing feeble bats to begin the 2024 season, the powerhouse Dodgers provided the Twins a taste of supremacy at Target Field on Monday night.
Although it’s too early in the season to evaluate a club for what it might become, the Dodgers are performing better than expected, while the Twins are not.
The Twins managed just three hits on Monday night, and the final eighteen batters to bat were retired in order.
Shohei Ohtani hit a home run and two doubles for the Dodgers, who only managed four runs but exuded star power.
With games against the Padres in South Korea early in the season, the Dodgers have played 13 games, but Minnesota has only managed four home runs in eight games.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers have hit an MLB-high 17 home runs. However, that doesn’t change the fact that they’re raking in money.
Mookie Betts has five home runs and eleven RBI while slashing.376/.508/.841. With three bombs, Shohei Ohtani is hitting.345/.383/.673. Slashing.415/.444/.512, Will Smith is dominating.
It’s Freddie Freeman cutting at.348./466./457. Teoscar Hernandez is hitting.893 with four home runs and 14 RBI.
Will Smith has an OPS of.917 and is hitting.400.
Together, these four starters have an OPS of at least.900. In what way does that differ from the struggling Twins? Alex Kirilloff is the only player with comparable numbers (1.086 OPS).
Byron Buxton hasn’t homered yet and has a.656 OPS. It’s Eddy Julien cutting.125/.222/.292, Rayn Jeffers has only tallied two hits in 22 at-bats, Carlos Santana has four hits in 29 at-bats and just one RBI, and Max Kepler has just one hit in 20 at-bats.
Of plate appearances, the Twins are striking out 26.3% of them. That is not good.
And given that they have to play the Dodgers’ Tyler Glasnow and Bobby Miller as starts over the next two days, those strikeout totals are probably going to become worse.
With 14 strikeouts in just seven innings, 25-year-old Miller is a rising star, and Glasnow is a strikeout machine.
After allowing just 12 hits in their previous three games, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli is optimistic that things will start to turn around.
Baldelli stated, All we have to do is keep getting ready and attempting to barrel some balls up.
