Josh Donaldson departs because of injury again as Twins lose fifth in a row

The Twins hit the midpoint of their season at 15 games below .500 and 15½ games out of first place.

By Phil Miller Star Tribune

July 3, 2021 — 11:02pm

KANSAS CITY, MO. – We get it, Josh Donaldson. These mounting Twins losses, four dozen of them now, all vaguely look alike. You didn't need to re-enact your Opening Day hamstring injury to drive home the point.

The first half of the Twins' mostly miserable season ended Saturday exactly as it began, with Donaldson pulling up hurt while running out a double during yet another game Minnesota could have won, but didn't. The Twins took an early lead, gave it right back as though afraid they'd been caught stealing, and walked away frustrated, last place growing ever more inevitable.

With their lifeless 6-3 loss to the Royals, the Twins reached the halfway point of one of their most disappointing seasons in franchise history with a 33-48 record, sixth worst ever, and a 15 ½-game deficit behind Chicago in the AL Central. Kansas City came in wounded and wilting, having lost nine straight games, but the Twins have evicted them from the division cellar, and even padded the deficit to 1 ½ games, by losing five consecutive games.

"We have to put some different components together. We can't just go out there and swing the bats pretty good on one particular night, or pitch pretty good on one particular night. We have to play good baseball. That's going to be our focus going forward," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "That means things on a collective level, on a team level, and it also means getting each one of our players individually where they need to be."

Donaldson was there, batting .346 with five extra-base hits in his last eight games. But the last of those hits might keep him out for a game or two, as he slowed up halfway to second base and barely got to the bag in time. The injury to his hamstring doesn't appear to be as severe as the Opening Day strain that cost him two weeks, Baldelli said, but "we're going to give him a day or two, see where he's at, and then hopefully be able to move forward."

They've been moving backward on this road trip, now 0-5 with one game left, even though they've held a lead at some point in all five. That brings their total to 30 blown-lead losses, already more than they had in all of 2019.

"We could have played better overall. We needed to tack on some more runs in the middle of that ballgame and find a way to go about that," Baldelli said. "It was a tough ballgame. Felt like in the middle of the game there wasn't a lot happening. We have guys that can do things out on the field. But we've got to take the action to the opposition, something we didn't do today."

Griffin Jax's first career start was going wonderfully, with three shutout innings — until the Twins scored. Once they handed him a two-run lead, thanks to a Hansel Alberto throwing error and a two-out RBI single by Jorge Polanco, things got a lot harder for the rookie righthander. A walk and a Luis Arraez throwing error set up Hunter Dozier's two-run double, and Edward Olivares capped the four-run inning with a first-pitch home run, his first of the season.

BOXSCORE: Kansas City 6, Twins 3

An inning later, a couple of soft hits and a Salvador Perez double left Jax with a six-run start, his first career loss, and a feeling of disappointment.

"It's just a day of frustrations. I'm trying to not let my emotions come out," Jax said of his clear annoyance at a Jorge Soler popup that no Twins fielder could reach before it fell for a single. "My job is to go out there and give this team a chance to win every single day. Unfortunately, I couldn't live up to that today, so I just start working toward the next one."

That's been the problem for the Twins lately: There's always a next one.