Lefties pose big challenge for Twins early
Rosters have turned over, players have moved on and new players have reached the majors, but there’s one storyline that seems to have followed the Twins in recent years. The sample size is still particularly small, but in the early going of this season, it doesn’t seem to have gotten better. The Twins, yet again, are struggling to hit lefties.
Entering Monday, the Twins were hitting . 169/. 280/.
250 against left-handed pitchers with 38 strikeouts in 124 at-bats. “We knew coming in that we were a left-handed based team,” manager Derek Shelton said. “We’ve been in every game with the exception of one.
… If we’re going to look at a sample size of nine games at any point during the season, then we’re going to overplay a lot of things. ” True. But to make matters worse, the Twins are scheduled to face two of the best southpaws this week with reigning two-time American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal lined up for Tuesday and Framber Valdez, whom the Twins made a run at in free agency, set for the next day.
Through their first nine games, the Twins saw five left-handed starters — Trevor Rogers, Kris Bubic, Noah Cameron, Cole Ragans and Steven Matz. That’s a lot and won’t stop soon — all four rival American League Central rotations have at least one, and most have multiple. “I think we’re going to turn it around and find a way to get some hits off lefties,” second baseman Luke Keaschall said.