Sonny Gray is having a very strange season.

He took the loss on Monday, as the Twins lost 7-6 at Seattle. He hasn’t won a game since - this seems impossible - April 30. I think we’re all aware at this point that pitcher wins aren’t a great way of judging pitchers, but even so, the Twins are 3-10 in Gray’s starts since April 30.

His numbers were still enough to get him onto the All-Star team, and even after Monday’s loss, they’re not bad; he’s got a 3.16 ERA for the season, he’s struck out 106 hitters in 105.1 innings, and opposing batters have a .631 OPS against him.

I figured that I’d check his splits and find out that he was a candidate for the Dylan Bundy/Chris Archer two-times-through-the-order plan, but - before Monday’s game - his numbers the third time through the order were actually better than his numbers the second time through the order.

In this one, everything was great for Gray, except for the fifth inning. He suddenly lost the ability to throw his slider for a strike, and things fairly quickly went from bad to worse - a double, a walk, a hit batter, a single, another walk, another single, and the Twins went from being up 2-0 to down 4-2.

In the sixth, Gray even managed to let a run score without allowing a hit - a walk, two groundouts that moved the runner to third, and then a wild pitch. Rocco Baldelli removed Gray after the wild pitch, presumably because there was a chance that Gray was so angry he was going to explode.

The Twins actually did manage to get on base a few times, but the final score was actually a bit flattering; they trailed 7-3 in the ninth inning, then Max Kepler hit a three-run homer. While nice, a two-out homer that makes it 7-6 instead of 7-3 turns out to increase the team’s chances of winning from about 1% to 3%.

Let’s save a special word for Byron Buxton, who is now 0-for-17 since the break, with ten strikeouts in 19 trips to the plate. Buxton is batting .196 and has an OPS of .694. I’m not sure that we need to talk about how terrible this is, except to idly wonder how a hitter that has played zero innings in the field, and has an OPS of .694, actually has a positive WAR for the season.

The Twins aren’t exactly short on guys who can’t hit, but I don’t know what you do with a guy who can’t hit and also physically is unable to field. (I take that back. I do know, but I also don’t expect the Twins to do it.)

TODAY’S SLATE

SAINTS at Omaha, 12:05pm
LYNX at Atlanta, 6pm
TWINS at Seattle, 8:40pm

ON DECK

LOONS vs. Puebla, Sunday