When Twins draw walks, they often convert into runs, wins

Stymied on offense through four innings Monday night, the Twins once again returned to a lesson that has served them well this young season: Before they can get a run, they must walk.

Kennys Vargas and Chris Gimenez drew back-to-back one-out walks. Eddie Rosario struck out, but the struggling Byron Buxton pieced together a nice at bat and he, too, walked to load the bases with two outs for Brian Dozier. The Twins second baseman unloaded them with a three-run double, putting Minnesota ahead 3-2 — a score that would hold up as the final.

It was another example of the Twins' patient approach this season — and how it's helping them scratch out some runs even while many bats in the lineup remain cold.

Heading into Tuesday's game at Texas, the Twins this season had drawn an MLB-leading 85 walks. As a result, even though they were only 24th in the majors in batting average (.229), they were 10th in on-base percentage (.323). Miguel Sano led the way with 17 walks, while Robbie Grossman had 15. (Somewhat surprisingly, Joe Mauer had only four walks to go with only five strikeouts in 71 plate appearances.)

Walks have fueled several big innings this season: the first two games of the season against Kansas City, a recent rally against Detroit's Justin Verlander and Monday night against Texas are prime examples.

Add it up and there are some pretty fascinating numbers for the Twins, again heading into Tuesday (when they drew six walks, none of those scored, yet they still won 8-1):

• In five games this season, the Twins had at least three players score runs who got on base via a walk. Minnesota has won each of those games.

• Overall, the Twins had scored 77 runs this season. A whopping 22 of those runners who crossed the plate reached base via a walk. There were other instances where a walk helped an inning along by advancing other runners who later scored or when a player who walked was erased on a fielder's choice but led to a run when that runner later scored.

For a quick comparison, I looked at last year's Twins, who at this point in the season had scored 62 runs in 19 games while drawing 66 walks. Their record was 5-14. And only eight of those 62 runs had been scored via players who walked last season (12.9 percent).

So the Twins this season have been prolific in both drawing walks and in converting those walks into runs, as the comparison to last year suggests.