If Torii Hunter achieved one thing Wednesday night, it is this: a good chunk of the discussion about the Twins on Thursday is not about their recent tailspin but rather is about a nearly 40-year-old man melting down to the point that he at least was in the beginning stages of a Slap Shot-esque striptease.

This piece of veteran savvy was not likely on Hunter's mind as he stewed about what he believed was a revenge call on a ball a few inches outside that was instead called a strike, but it is a byproduct — locally and nationally — that has taken at least some of the focus off of the team's woes.

Let me redirect your attention, then, back to the real story: a slumping Twins offense that has been dreadful in June. I mention that bad stretch with full knowledge that the month is only 10 games old and that almost every capable team will go through a rough patch or two in a season (the 1991 Twins, who won 95 games and the World Series, started out 2-9 and had two other separate meaningful stretches that season in which they went 1-7 and 2-8).

So let's treat it for what it is: a cause for concern if it continues, but not a cause for alarm because it can't be this bad for long. But let's still look at those numbers because they explain why the Twins are struggling so much right now (and probably explains at least some of the reason Hunter had such a quick tantrum trigger).

*Pitching most definitely has not been the problem. The Twins have gone 3-7 in June, but their team ERA this month is a sparkling 3.17 — better than it was in April (4.36) or the red-hot month of May (3.57) in which the Twins went 20-7.

*The team's hitting, however, has taken a huge nosedive. After a pedestrian month of April scoring close to four runs a game, the Twins jumped up to 5.15 runs per game in May. In June so far, they've scored just 25 runs — 2.5 per game, or less than half of what they were scoring last month. Within that offensive drop-off we see predictable drops in almost every number, including a team OPS that went from a very good .743 in May to a really bad .566 so far in June.

*Some of it, however, has to do with a little bad luck. The Twins are actually putting the ball in play more often this month than in previous months. As a team, they struck out 1 of every 4.65 plate appearances in a April, once every 5.01 in May … and 1 of ever 5.40 in June. But if they were somewhat fortunate before — their .314 batting average on balls in play in May is above the league average — they are unlucky now. Their BABIP through 10 games in June is just .235, well below the major league average.

Offensively, the Twins will surely get some better luck as the games wear on … though envisioning them as a 5-plus runs per game team for the long haul is also not realistic. The likely conclusion is they'll settle in somewhere in the middle — just as the overall team will settle in somewhere between that 20-7 May juggernaut and the 3-7 June jugger-not (so, so sorry).

In the meantime, Hunter's game of strip baseball is an unintentionally clever diversion, perhaps a suspension-worthy event, but not much more.