They say hitting is contagious

When the Twins' 2012 season began, homer that I am, I wistfully hoped for (okay, fully expected) a team that would be in contention this season.  I mean, I didn't really expect the playoffs.  I just secretly hoped they'd prove everybody wrong.

But after the shock of the opening series (because who expected this year from Baltimore?) and the disappointment of the home opener loss (the first home opener I've ever attended - I was not a happy camper), the Minnesota baseball fan's 2012 mantra became "All we ask is that you make it entertaining!"

The Twins' first successful sweep was in May against the Tigers, and the season was starting to plane out.  As the games rolled on, answers were beginning to form for some of the biggest questions of spring training, and those answers were looking good.  Joe Mauer had played almost every game.  Justin Morneau was successfully making a case for more and more playing time.  Ryan Doumit, Josh Willingham, and Jamey Carroll were showing themselves to be shrewd investments.  The bullpen was faring better than expected, and Diamond (who I've had a soft spot for since I attended his debut in 2011) was beginning to inspire a succession of terrible puns in headlines about pitching "a gem" of a game.  The other starting pitchers seemed to be the downfall that would keep the Twins from turning the season around, but there were more than enough good things happening to "make it entertaining."

From June 1-August 7, the Twins were playing better than .500 baseball, .517 to be exact, going 31 and 29.  So the two weeks worth of games since then have come as a shock to the system, with the boys going 2-11 in that span, a dismal .154.

Definitely not "entertaining."

Wednesday's game was painful to see progress in little dots and tiny figures on GameCast Mini.  Day games like these make me happy I work in a building that AM radio cannot penetrate.  In the last 13 games, the Twins have had only one loss that was decided by one run, while they've had seven games in that time frame where they lost by four or more runs.  And while a normal loss finds many a fan lamenting the men the Twins left on base, it was worse on Tuesday when they didn't leave a single man on base.  It felt like they walked away with nary a whimper.

When the boys hit a skid like this, it's easy for the fans, and probably far easier for the team, to focus on the negatives and to begin having flashbacks of 2011.  But while there were only two wins in the last two weeks, those wins were decisive: 9-3 vs. the Tigers, and 7-2 vs. the As.

I couldn't possibly count the number of times I heard Twins players, coaches, or reporters say "hitting is contagious" during the first month of the season.  It proved to be true for the 61 game stretch from June into August, a time when it was easy to see that the boys still had some fight left in them.

We know the Twins aren't going to make the playoffs.  We know they won't see .500 for the second year in a row.  But as of the wee hours of August 23, the Twins have still got the #4 (Mauer) and #6 (Ben Revere) hitters in the AL.  And there are still the Twins' bombers.  It may have been over a week since Willingham hit career high home run #30, and La Velle E. Neal III wrote on Wednesday that Trevor Plouffe is 2-for-39 without at home run in 92 plate appearances.  (Activated from the DL on August 13, it would have been nice to see Plouffe return to form before nine games passed.  But it took until about June 1 for his bat to heat up this season, and heat up it did.)

But, I don't think this slump will last forever.  In fact, the boys may still be reeling from Nishioka's recent stint in the Big Leagues.

But come next Wednesday (August 29) when I'll be at Target Field, I fully expect to see a recovered Plouffe and another home run or two from Willingham.

And you know, they say hitting is contagious.  Maybe they'll make it entertaining!

Image from: http://www.twincities.com/twins/ci_20985192/no-all-star-spot-willingham-or-diamond