The Twins starters haven’t been real effective yet this season, but it’s been great to see the resiliency of the Minnesota bats. The Twins have trailed in all three of their victories this season. In the first win, they were down by 4 before coming back with 13 runs. In the first two games of the Oakland series the Twins were down by 4 runs and 3 runs, respectively, before coming back to win each game by one run.

The first game against Oakland was particularly nice to see. When a team has a 1-5 record, and has lost 4 straight, it’s pretty easy to get down after quickly getting behind by 4 runs. However, the Twins bats were able to battle back with a big 6 run inning, something they weren’t able to do very often last year. I think there are a few factors that have contributed to this newfound resiliency in the Twins bats.

1. They’re getting homeruns. The first two games against Oakland involved 3-run homers from Tony Batista and Justin Morneau. It’s a lot easier to mount a comeback when you can drive in 3 runs with a homer.
2. They have more mature hitters. The Twins are a little older than they used to be, and that surely contributes to the understanding that a game isn’t over just because you’re down 4 runs early. Up and down the lineup the Twins have had better at-bats and they’re not pressing as much to get hits when they get down. Even Justin Morneau had a lot of patience at the plate last night, seeing 5 pitches before hitting his homerun on Wednesday night and then drawing a walk against a lefty later in the game.
3. New hitting Coach Joe Vavra. A lot of the increased patience at the plate has to be attributed to Vavra’s work with the younger players. The Twins hitters have been forcing pitchers to throw them good pitches and it’s paid off with the amount of homeruns and extra base hits they’ve hit this season.

The Twins pitching has to be pretty satisfied with the run support they’ve seen in a few of the games this year. Last year, the team had to rely on the pitching almost every night to win ballgames. It’s nice to see that the Twins can give up 5 or 6 runs and still have a chance to win a ballgame.