Riding the Skid

It's been a while off the beat, but it looks like I’ll be back in a big way for the next little while – as it stands, I think I should be at the next five Twins’ games, so that should provide a chance for some consistent coverage and I can sharpen my understanding of the team as they hit the homestretch.

They are certainly scuffling – after beating Brantford in Brantford, they went on to drop seven straight and that streak is very much alive heading into tomorrow’s home game against Kitchener. That, of course, would be the same Kitchener team they lost to by a single run two weeks ago.

After that, they host London on Saturday and head to Christie Pitts to play the Maple Leafs on Sunday. The Leafs, surprisingly, are at 10-6 and only two and a half games out of first place; many of the Leafs’ devoted perennial followers seemed to think they were a weaker team this year than in years past when I spoke to a few the last time they played the Twins.

Before I get too far, I should selfishly and shamelessly plug a Jays article I wrote for U of T’s paper recently:

http://thevarsity.ca/article/19318

Anyways, back to the Twins (and things). At 5-11, they presently sit in the eighth and final playoff spot. Hamilton is four and a half games out; interestingly, the low point of the Twins’ skid thus far came when they fell to the Thunderbirds in Hamilton, giving the T-Birds their first (and to date only) win of the season. I still don’t think the Twins need to be genuinely concerned about the possibility of being overtaken by the lowly Birds, but if their losing streak continues and Hamilton can string a few together (that being, by the way, far less probable than the Twins continuing to lose, as far as I can see) it could certainly be tight heading into the homestretch.

That said, there are four teams within four games of the Twins, and as the season develops I fully expect a few of them will drop a bit and a few will rise. Conversely, I am near certain that the Twins are far better than that sub-.333 winning percentage, and they should pick up a few games against a couple of the teams above them. All in all, I still think the Twins will do better than eighth place – but hey, sometimes the whole expansion team thing is just too much to overcome and a team scuffles all year. We’ll see, obviously.

That attempt to climb in the standings begins tomorrow against Kitchener, who sit three games up on the Twins. London is actually tied with Kitchener, and it would be meaningful if they could pick up games against both teams this weekend.

I’m awfully tired tonight, so this is as long as it gets, I think. Look for post-game bloggage tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday night! I have a few general and a few specific things to say about the team that I haven’t gone into tonight, so my blog posts throughout the weekend will have that stuff scattered throughout.

And you’ll all be heartbroken to learn that I’ve yet to write those feature pieces for an insert in the Twins’ published-once-a-year program. Rightly or wrong – probably wrongly – I’ve felt swamped for the past little bit, not to mention having been out of town for four days out of the past week, so I just haven’t gotten around to them. I’m trying to settle down and focus on doing some substantive writing over the next little while, so they should get done soon.