Twins 4, Red Sox 2: Embarrassing, Pathetic, Feeble and Excruciating!

This battle of Mid is brought to you by the letter K.

In a game that proved to be a disturbingly accurate microcosm of the overall “race” between the Red Sox and Twins from the last month, fans at Fenway were treated to a miserable, mediocre product where both teams spent the entire evening trying to gift wrap the game to the other on a silver platter. It took until the 12th inning before the Sox finally proved pathetic enough to deliver the victory to Minnesota.

During the odyssey to nowhere, the Sox struck out 20 times, which tied the franchise record for the most strikeouts in any single game in their history. The last time it happened was in 1974 in a contest that went 14 innings in a game where they drew Nolan Ryan was on the mound. So that’s kind of understandable. Tonight? The Twins used nine different pitchers, each one as unknown as the next, and they still got the Sox bats to catch more air than windmills on the night where a gale was blowing in from center field.

Here’s a thought: When you’re hitting into a hurricane, perhaps try choking up on the bat a little bit or shortening your swing to get the ball in play instead of trying to swing out of your ass on every single pitch in an attempt to fight a two front war against both the Twins and Mother Nature. My Lord were some of these approaches embarrassing!

The team as a whole ended up going 1-19 with runners in scoring position and left 17 men on base. A true masterclass in inefficiency!

Oh, and if you want to know how angry people were who sat around and watched this entire disaster, you don’t have to look any further than the replies to the official Red Sox Twitter account when they posted something as innocuous as the final score.

Here’s just a few of the gems that generated:

Tigers fans were also watching this horrific display of baseball, desperately hoping the Sox could help them hold Minnesota back. They were not amused:

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There will be no play of the game from this one because I’m not going to subject any of our fine readers here to any more more visual carnage.

Studs

Dick Fitts: He strung together five scoreless innings and still hasn’t allowed an earned run over his first three starts.

Jarren Duran: Two hits, two walks, two stolen bases. It’s really hard to be as bad as the Sox were offensively tonight when you get this type of production from the leadoff hitter.

Duds

You could literally choose a dozen guys for this category, but when you have this many empty at bats, the core three are the 3-4-5 hitters who combined to go 1-16 with nine strike outs.

Tyler O’Neill: 0-5 with four strike outs and a -.440 WPA.

Triston Casas: 0-5 with three strike outs and a -.266 WPA

Wilyer Abreu: 1-6 with two strike outs and a .234 WPA