Reviewing some shocking pitching stats from Twins' dreadful stretch

The Twins' recent stretch of pitching ineptitude has been almost difficult to believe.

For two months, this was a team that had some of the better pitching statistics in all of baseball. It was the primary strength of a roster that struggled to find consistency on the offensive side of the ball. But then Pablo Lopez got injured, Zebby Matthews followed him to the IL, and everything fell apart.

Lopez last pitched on June 3 in a win over the Athletics. Matthews last pitched the following night, going five strong innings in another win. At that point, the Twins were 34-27 and had the third-best record in the American League.

June 5 is when the unraveling began. David Festa was rocked that night and the A's beat the Twins 14-3 to avoid a four-game sweep in West Sacramento. Starting with that game, the Twins have gone 3-14 ahead of Tuesday night's game against the Mariners — the worst record in all of baseball during that span. They're now 37-41 and have the fourth-worst record in the AL.

It's been all about pitching during this dreadful 20-day stretch. Let's review some of the shocking numbers (which are accurate prior to Tuesday night's games).

• Twins pitchers have allowed 138 runs in 147 innings over the last 17 games. That's the second-most runs allowed in a 17-game span in Twins history, one behind the 139 they gave up in such a stretch in April 1994. (Hat tip to Aaron Gleeman for that one).

• That includes single-game opponent run totals of 17, 16, 16, 14, 11, 10, 9, and 9. That accounts for eight of the 17 games right there.

• The next-most runs allowed by a team since June 5 across MLB? The Colorado Rockies with 101. In the AL, it's the Detroit Tigers at 86. Yes, the Twins have given up 52 more runs than any other AL team since June 5.

• Another way to look at it is that the Twins' team ERA since June 5 is 7.84. The next-worst team, the Rockies, are at 6.08. The next-closest AL team, the Tigers, are at 4.81.

• The Twins' -67 run differential during this span is their worst since they were -74 in a 17-game stretch in September 2013. Before that, you have to go back to 1993 to find a 17-game stretch with a -67 run differential or worse by a Twins team. The next-worst MLB team by run differential since June 5 is the Washington Nationals at -29.

• After an 11-2 loss in the series opener against Seattle on Monday, the Twins have allowed 46 runs over their last four games. They also gave up 44 runs in a four-game stretch from June 10 to 13. Here's the key context: From July 2003 through May 2024, the Twins allowed 44 or more runs in a four-game span just twice (once in 2015 and once in 2017). So they've hit that ugly mark as many times over the last two weeks as they did in a span of more than 21 years before this season.

• 13 Twins pitchers have thrown at least 5 innings during this span. Seven of them (including three starters) have an ERA over 8.00. That includes infielder Jonah Bride, whose 6 innings are as many as Jhoan Duran has thrown and more than Griffin Jax, Brock Stewart, or Louis Varland have thrown. Jax, Stewart, Varland, and Joe Ryan are the Twins' only pitchers with a sub-4 ERA in this stretch.

• The Twins have allowed nine or more runs in each of their last four games. If that happens again on Tuesday night, it would tie the franchise record. They'd also be just the fifth MLB team since 2000 to reach that mark.

• The Twins are 49-68 since last season's collapse began in mid-August. That's a 68-win pace over a full season. And somehow, that includes a 13-game winning streak.

Read more