The Twins Are Battling Murphy’s Law To Start the Season

It’s the type of conundrum no team wants to face at any point in the season. However, the Minnesota Twins are battling against an adage that has stood the test of time.

Murphy’s Law is known to many as “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

It’s fair to argue that Minnesota’s season has not truly encapsulated the meaning of Murphy’s Law yet. If it had, they would have lost all nine of their games on the calendar like they lost Sunday afternoon’s game 9-7 in 10 innings. Then it would be full-blown panic mode, generating comparisons to the Twins’ 0-9 start in 2016.

Minnesota’s season started 0-4, with the St. Louis Cardinals sweeping them. Then, the Chicago White Sox, who lost 121 games last year, beat them 9-0. It didn’t inspire much hope of things going any better. It looked like anything that could go wrong for the Twins in 2025 would go wrong. However, they won three of their next four, outscoring their opponents 22-10.

But Sunday’s loss to the Astros, a game the Twins led 7-1 going into the top of the fifth and had a 96.7% chance to win at that point, will be hard for players, coaches, and fans to wipe from their minds for a while.

So, what were the things in Sunday’s game that could have gone better but succumbed to Murphy’s Law? The Twins were 4-for-8 with runners in scoring position in the first four innings, helping them build their 7-1 lead. However, they went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position every inning after that, missing out on every opportunity to get insurance runs to protect their lead.

Griffin Jax started his 2024 season with six scoreless outings, but he has already allowed three runs in 2 ⅔ innings over just three outings. The two most crucial runs came off Yordan Alvarez’s game-tying homer. Alvarez was previously 0-for-2 against Jax.

Jax threw a 97.5 MPH fastball right into Alvarez’s wheelhouse, and the Astros slugger broke out of a slump and helped tie the game for Houston. Entering Sunday’s game, Alvarez was just 4-for-29 on the season (.138 batting average) with a .408 OPS. Alvarez’s homer, single, and sac fly that got the Astros on the board in the first helped him return to form.

The Twins couldn’t rally for any runs in the bottom of the ninth and walk-off on the Astros, and Louie Varland took the mound for the sixth time in the first nine games. The Astros took full advantage of the fatigued Varland, dropping a sacrifice bunt to advance the ghost runner from second to third, drawing a walk, and then an RBI single from Jose Altuve to put them up 8-7.

The Astros benefited from a challenge call to get their second run in the top of the 10th, where it looked like Ryan Jeffers had Jake Meyers tagged out on a steal attempt at home. However, home plate umpire Chris Conroy called Meyers safe on the play, and the officials in New York upheld the call despite Minnesota’s challenge.

To end the game on a low note, Christian Vázquez pinch hit against Josh Hader and took a called strike three on a slider that landed outside the strike zone. The Twins are now 3-6 to start the season for the second year in a row.

Where do the Twins go from here to ensure this 3-6 start is not a continuation of their 12-27 collapse to end 2024? Their offense is 29 out of 30 in the league with a .581 OPS and is one of five teams collectively hitting below .200 at a .198 team batting average. The pitching staff’s ERA sits just below five at 4.96, good for 24th out of 30 teams, and opposing hitters are tagging Twins pitchers for a .272 batting average.

The Twins are only two games into a 12-game, 12-day stretch as they hit the road for a four-game series against the Kansas City Royals. The last time they were in KC, at the beginning of September, the Royals swept them in a three-game series.

They return to KC for four games, and it feels like Murphy’s Law will magnify any mistake, further burying their season. The Twins must overcome the small margin for error to ensure they can at least split the series against the Royals, if not take three out of four.

Minnesota must battle Murphy’s Law over these next 10 days to prove its 3-6 start is a fluke and avoid another 7-13 stretch to start the season.

Still, the Twins must find new ways to rally. It’s almost impossible for a magical yet expired sausage and 12-win streak to help this team. Fortunately for this team, they’ve been in this situation before and can find a way to turn things around before it gets too late.