RandBall: Twins not all or nothing in HR pursuit

September 2, 2019 at 2:05AM

Another fairly significant and remarkable number that sits adjacent to the Twins' home run record this season: The Twins have struck out fewer times than all but six teams in the majors.

Twins batters are striking out 8.27 times per game. Three hitters have already reached 100 (Miguel Sano, Nelson Cruz and Jonathan Schoop), while several others are likely to reach that milestone before the end of the season.

But at least relative to the rest of baseball, the Twins are doing a good job putting the ball in play while doing an exceptional job knocking the ball over the fence.

The Twins this season are on pace to strike out about 1,340 times — right around the same number they had last year (1,328). The difference? Last year's team hit only 166 homers.

This year's Twins already have 102 more homers than that, and there's still almost a month left in the season.

Read Michael Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. michael.rand@startribune.com.

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