RandBall: Bad defense hurts Twins again in loss

August 15, 2019 at 12:44AM

The Twins bullpen has melted down too many times to count lately, but Sergio Romo certainly had some help — or lack thereof, looked at differently — in surrendering three runs Wednesday in a 6-5 loss to the Brewers.

Shortstop Jorge Polanco's throwing error on a routine ground ball to start the inning was his second of the game. It was also the Twins' 85th of the season as a team.

Entering play Wednesday, only two teams in the majors had made more errors than that — Seattle and the White Sox, both with 93.

In advanced metrics like defensive runs saved (per FanGraphs), the Twins fare much better and sit among the top half of teams in baseball.

But sloppy work on routine plays has doomed the Twins on numerous occasions, and there's no telling how the eighth inning would have unfolded if Romo had recorded the first out instead of being saddled with a baserunner.

Read Michael Rand's blog each day at startribune.com/randball. E-mail: michael.rand@startribune.com

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