RandBall: As Twins fade down the stretch, plenty of blame to go around

With three outs standing between the skidding Twins and a badly needed win Wednesday, manager Rocco Baldelli looked to his bullpen and called upon Ronny Henriquez.

Henriquez entered the game having achieved pretty good results in 17 previous major league appearances. But his advanced stats showed a pitcher who was perhaps getting by as much on execution as fortune. And more importantly, he had never pitched in a save situation in his MLB career.

It could have worked out, and if it did we would be having a different conversation right now.

But it did not. Henriquez gave up three runs in the bottom of the 10th after the Twins had scored twice in the top half. The 5-4 loss to Cleveland combined with surging Detroit’s win left the Tigers just a half-game back in the wild card race.

The seeds for what happened at the end of the game, though, were planted well before Wednesday. How far back you want to go probably says a lot about who you blame the most for this stretch run collapse — something Minnesota Star Tribune columnist La Velle E. Neal III and I debated on Thursday’s Daily Delivery podcast.

A query posed on Twitter suggests that many Twins fans blame ownership for the Twins’ slump. Those fans might trace the root of Wednesday’s loss, when Henriquez was deemed the best option, to February when Joe Pohlad set the guideposts for team payroll when he said the Twins were not in the market for any big name free agents.

Maybe you want to blame Derek Falvey and Thad Levine? They did nothing at the start of the year to upgrade a rotation that lost Sonny Gray, relying on duct tape and hubris (yes, while constrained by payroll) in hoping that Anthony DeSclafani and/or Chris Paddack would fill the void. Spoiler alert: They did not.

Perhaps you’d rather dump on manager Rocco Baldelli for decisions like lifting a cruising Bailey Ober after seven innings, one hit, no runs and 83 pitches of a 2-0 game in Kansas City that turned into a 4-2 loss? Not only did the Twins lose that Sept. 7 game, but they ended up needing both Jhoan Duran and Griffin Jax to pitch when one or both of them could have had the night off had Ober gone deeper.

That extra work has piled up as the number of trustworthy relievers has gone down. Jax threw 21 pitches, surrendering the game-losing two-run homer in the process, on Monday. He then had to pitch again Tuesday to close out a win after Duran needed 30 pitches to get four outs. That meant Duran could only go one inning Wednesday and Jax was unavailable. So the 10th went to Henriquez.

Or maybe you are inclined to blame the players? It’s not Baldelli’s fault that Jorge Alcala suddenly couldn’t get anyone out, starting with his blow-up a month ago in Texas that began this massive slide. Twins hitting coach David Popkins, at least to my knowledge, did not tell virtually the entire lineup (led by Royce Lewis) to go into a collective slump that left margins incredibly thin for a fragile pitching staff.

The Twins fans who still have the energy to care are mad, and I don’t blame them. If the Twins continue to falter and miss the postseason after being a virtual lock a month ago — this just two years after they were tied for the AL Central lead in early September only to finish 14 games out by the end — so much of the good will earned last October will be given back.

They have 10 big games and a precious tiebreaker over the Tigers to wrestle back the narrative.