At this point, the Twins are looking for anything to get them out of their season-opening slump. Anything to ease the growing mental challenge of pretending nothing is wrong despite the win column remaining frozen at zero.
On Wednesday, the White Sox beat the Twins 3-0 at Target Field, dropping them to 0-8 this season. Phil Hughes tore through Chicago's batting order for four innings, but the White Sox came up with a run in the sixth before Jerry Sands hit a two-run homer in the seventh to put the Twins away.
The Twins have become the 29th team, according to baseball-reference.com, to start a season with eight losses. They are the first to do so since the 2010 Astros.
Now come the mental games. They pretend they are 0-0. They don't look at the standings. They think anything — a big pitch, diving play or finding a penny near second base — will turn things around.
"We're looking for momentum-changers, for sure," manager Paul Molitor said. "Whether it is a defensive play, or Hughes getting out of a jam. Maybe it's a baserunning play. Just something to get you going."
Because the Twins aren't generating anything. They have gone 14 consecutive innings, and 20 of their past 21, without scoring a run. And they went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position Wednesday to drop to 5-for-61 (.082) in that category.
They have to find a way to score runs — if it takes lucky charms, a séance, a bat sacrifice, anything.
"We're just in a bad stretch right now," shortstop Eduardo Escobar said. "It's not coming out the way we want it to come out. We're going to keep working. Just because we are in a slump now doesn't mean we are going to stay in it. For all we know, the next day we will turn it around."