Location: Minneapolis, Minn. | Ballpark: Metrodome (56,000) | Spring Training: Ft. Myers, Fla.
Owner: Carl Pohland | GM: Bill Smith | Manager: Ron Gardenhire | World Championships: 2
Manager Ron Gardenhire said he would talk with his team before the Twins start a three-game series at Cleveland on Friday night, addressing the three-game sweep the club suffered in New York earlier this week.
"We've got to figure out something when we get to Cleveland to get our mojo back because we lost some of it," Gardenhire said after a 5-1 loss Wednesday, the team's fourth straight defeat. "It's not a good feeling right now. We'll do that in Cleveland, have a little talk with them."
The Twins are 5-8 in the past 13 games and 2-4 since the All-Star break. It was in Cleveland in June, Gardenhire said, that the Twins righted the ship after a season-high six-game losing streak.
Last time the Twins were in Cleveland, they dropped two of three games, but in the final game a bean-ball war erupted.
A Twins reliever hit a Cleveland batter -- not on purpose, Gardenhire contends, because Cleveland already had a sizable lead at the time. But the Indians plunked back by hitting second baseman Alexi Casilla, who had been swinging a hot bat at the time.
The Twins responded by hitting another Cleveland batter, causing Gardenhire and Indians manager Eric Wedge to get into a cross-dugout shouting match.
"We came in the clubhouse after that game and guys were saying, ... 'We're not going to take this (expletive) off anybody,'" Gardenhire said. "I thought that night, that's when I saw a little fire, fire that I wanted to see."
The skipper will be looking for that same fire, no doubt, Friday night in Cleveland to get the Twins back on their pre-break path.
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