PHOENIX — The Twins beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 13-6 on Thursday afternoon to halfway through their season.
They came into this win 7.5 games behind the Cleveland Guardians in second place after Thursday’s win, despite playing on a 90-win pace after a tumultuous first half.
“I think we’re in a good position going forward,” coach Rocco Baldelli said. “We’ve done everything we wanted to do up to this point.”
Their first half was marked by a string of consecutive wins, the longest of which saw the Twins (45-36) bond over a sausage wrapper, creating one of major league’s stranger stories.
The Twins started the season 7-13 but then rallied to win 12 straight games, fueled by Cloverdale sausages left in the clubhouse by infielder Kyle Farmer, who promoted the company last year.
In mid-May, the team was on a seven-game losing streak and finally called a players-only meeting in Washington after suffering a 12-3 blowout loss.
Other losing streaks followed in June, including a five-game losing streak and a six-game winning streak, but the Twins have settled down and have been one of the best hitting teams of late.
“There are going to be areas where we can improve,” Baldelli said. “A lot of the improvement will be small improvements and tweaks, little adjustments every day depending on what’s going on with individual players and the team. All of that is true. But we came out ready to go in the first half and played, and that’s what I want to see.”
They’re still far behind in the division, but Baldelli said no one in the clubhouse is worried because it’s outside of their control.
Cleveland is one of the strongest teams in the major leagues, but the Twins are currently in second place in the wild card standings and are in a good position to make the playoffs.
“We’re in a good spot and we can be in a better spot,” shortstop Carlos Correa said. “Obviously, we’re not at the top of the division, but we’re happy with where we are as a team. We’re happy with the progress we’ve made in the last month and we’re moving in a good direction.”
Put simply
The Twins travel to Seattle this weekend for a three-game series against the West-leading Mariners. The Twins won three of four games against the Mariners last month. … Bailey Ober, Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan are scheduled to pitch against the Mariners. … The Twins demoted relief pitcher Rony Henriquez to Triple-A to make room on the roster for David Festa, who made his major league debut on Thursday.
