BALTIMORE — The Minnesota Twins sent Matt Wallner to Triple-A St. Paul for a reset on Tuesday. Looks like the rest of the team needs one as well.
Hours after demoting their struggling young right fielder, the Twins played one of their most deflating games of the season.
Chris Paddack yielded more hard contact than ever to a talented Baltimore Orioles lineup and the Twins offense remained mostly punchless in an 11-3 pounding at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Paddack allowed nine earned runs and the Twins lost their third in a row, dropping to 6-10 overall.
“Everything feels wrong when you’re not playing well,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We’re not playing good baseball. We weren’t close to winning the game. … None of them are easy right now. We have to play better. We simply just have to play better and it’s not — unfortunately, it’s not just one thing that we have to do.”
The Twins got one thing right on Tuesday as Paddack salvaged the bullpen by pitching into the sixth inning.
Everything else was a disaster.
Paddack escaped after struggling in the first inning. He wasn’t quite as lucky in the second. One strike away, Paddack left too much of an 0-2 fastball over the plate and James McCann hammered it for an RBI double. One pitch later, Gunnar Henderson blasted a two-run homer to put Baltimore up by three runs.
O’s up three in the blink of an eye pic.twitter.com/zomAHRqzwq
— Orioles on MASN (@masnOrioles) April 16, 2024
Paddack allowed five hits and walked one in the third inning. One of those hits was a booming two-run homer by Jordan Westburg. Two others were hard-hit singles. By the end of the inning, the Orioles led 7-0.
Of the 30 Baltimore batters to face him, Paddack allowed 10 balls with exit velocities of 100 mph or more, including seven for hits, tying his career-worst. The 12 hits Paddack yielded were a career high as were the nine earned runs.
“It’s a young, hungry lineup,” Paddack said. “They had a really good approach. … Things just kind of snowballed. I would say two strikes in, two out, I’ve got to be better. At the end of day, I take responsibility in that.”
Things seemingly have snowballed on the Twins since Opening Day.
The starting pitching hasn’t consistently been there. The offense is worse. With Carlos Correa out of the lineup, the infield defense has been particularly rough.
And that doesn’t even account for the injuries.
Jhoan Duran headed a group of three key relievers who began the season on the injured list along with Justin Topa and Caleb Thielbar. Royce Lewis didn’t last three innings. Max Kepler also fouled a pitch off his knee on Opening Day, which landed him on the injured list. Then Correa fell.
Beyond the major-league injuries, Brooks Lee and Trevor Larnach started the season on the IL at Triple A.
In less than three weeks, the organization’s depth has been depleted enough to where the group is so bare-bones that any injury to Kyle Farmer or Willi Castro would likely result in catcher Christian Vázquez playing third base. As a result, the Twins signed veteran infielder Tony Kemp to a minor-league deal on Tuesday.
The remaining group put up little resistance against Orioles starter Grayson Rodriguez.
Grayson Rodriguez’s 3Ks in the 6th. pic.twitter.com/R9DujUTD19
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 17, 2024
The first time through the order Rodriguez faced the minimum, aided by a pair of double-play balls.
The Twins scored a run on Byron Buxton’s RBI triple in the fourth inning and Alex Kirilloff singled in Ryan Jeffers, who doubled with one out in the sixth.
But that was it for the Twins, who continue to struggle at multiple spots in the lineup.
“We have to pitch better, we have to play better defensively and play crisper, sharper baseball and we have to have better at-bats,” Baldelli said. “The early part of the game, we didn’t make adjustments fast enough. We need to grab some leads. We need to go out there prepared on the first pitch of the game to go out there and grab a lead and that changes the game. … It feels like we’re behind a lot, we’re behind fairly early and it’s hard to play baseball like that.”
While multiple Twins hitters have suggested they’re not panicked by a slow start, the team felt it was time to give Wallner a breather.
Citing a need for a mental reset, the Twins sent Wallner back to Triple A before the game began.
Whether in spring training or to start the season, making contact has been a struggle for Wallner. He hit .132 in spring training and followed by batting .080/.273/.240 with 17 strikeouts in 33 plate appearances since the season began.
Baldelli spoke with Wallner following Monday’s loss and said he didn’t meet much resistance after delivering the news. Dating to last month, Wallner hasn’t been shy about the fact that he’s struggled.
“Both a physical reset at the plate, but also a good mental reset,” Baldelli said. “He has to find ways to relieve those thoughts that are probably in his head, that are swirling. … He’ll have other things that will be probably more challenging than this, but this feels like everything because it’s right here and it’s right now in front of him. He’ll be fine. He just needs to go get some work in and go whack some balls around.”
Buck was MOVING 💨#MNTwins | #MLB pic.twitter.com/6vz0eXhoq7
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) April 16, 2024
The move presents a window of opportunity for Larnach, who lost his job last season after going on the IL with pneumonia in May. At the time of his illness, Larnach led the Twins with 27 RBIs.
Wallner starred in Larnach’s absence. Then Kepler finally got going last June. When Larnach struggled after he returned in early June he was sent to Triple A, returning for only two brief stays the rest of the season.
Larnach began this season on the IL as he dealt with a case of turf toe. He only returned to action on Thursday, appearing in three games at Low-A Fort Myers.
Though he’s still searching for rhythm at the plate, the Twins viewed Larnach as their best option. Larnach went 1-for-4 in the loss.
“The experience helps,” Larnach said. “You understand how things are. It makes things a little bit easier knowing a lot of people here, obviously. I’ve had experiences with the coaching staff plenty of times. Know all these guys pretty well. Everyone makes it easy, but it’s just, part of the business is understanding there’s some things out of your control, and just work on the things that you can. That’s just kind of where I’m coming from. It helps, but like I said, I just want to play. I’m happy to be playing.”
Nuggets
Duran (oblique strain) is bored but upbeat after a strong bullpen session on Tuesday. Duran estimates his command is close to 100 percent after he threw a 20-plus pitch session. He expects to face hitters on Friday at Target Field. … Rookie catcher Jair Camargo made his major league debut, drawing a leadoff walk in the ninth inning and scoring a run in front of several excited family members, who arrived from Colombia three hours before the first pitch.
(Photo of Chris Paddack: Tommy Gilligan / USA Today)
