Sine wave, roller coaster, yo-yo - whatever metaphor you want to use for the Twins this season, they’re all apt.

Wednesday the Twins put together another stinker, losing to a hapless Tigers team, 9-5. Minnesota somehow allowed 17 hits in eight innings - eleven by Bailey Ober, six by Jordan Balazovic. For good measure, they struck out eleven times as well, including several times in key spots.

As bad as the AL Central is, this is already the sixth time this year that the Twins have lost back-to-back games against an AL Central opponent - twice against Detroit, twice against Cleveland, and once each against Chicago and Kansas City. It should be more or less impossible to lose twice in a row against these teams, given that they are playing .412 baseball combined - that’s a 96-loss pace - but the Twins have managed to not only stumble, but trip and fall and roll, six times against this division.

Minnesota is still four games over .500, which of course is their real battle this year, since the chances of Cleveland finishing over .500 are pretty miniscule. They’re 4.5 games ahead of the Guardians, but their real battle is to win 81 games. The way this year has gone, though, you can be pretty much sure that we’re headed for another flirtation with the .500 mark soon. The Twins simply can’t get out of their own way and actually win the games they need to.

Andrew Bechtold is, I suppose, still a third baseman for the St. Paul Saints. That said, there’s two things going on with him right now.

First of all, the Saints are pretty stuffed with infielders at the moment; in addition to a rehabbing Royce Lewis, they’ve now got super-prospect Brooks Lee and former super-prospect Austin Martin on the roster, as well as Anthony Prato, who keeps on smashing the ball (1.089 OPS at St. Paul this year). So the opportunities to play in the infield are, shall we say, a bit thin.

Second, Bechtold can throw 98. Even at Triple-A, even in this era of power pitchers, there aren’t that many guys who are out there throwing 98. So at least for the last few weeks, Bechtold’s spending his time entirely on the mound; he hasn’t batted since July 21, but he’s made five appearances as a pitcher in that span.

As you might expect, for a guy who hasn’t been a regular pitcher at a level beyond high school but is now trying to pitch one level away from the big leagues, it’s been a bit uneven; his ERA was up to 21.00 earlier this year. That said, in those last five appearances, Bechtold has allowed just a single solo home run in four and two thirds innings, though he has allowed four walks and four hits.

At any rate, he got his first win last night, pitching clean fifth inning against Louisville as the Saints went on to a 6-3 victory. Lee had a pair of RBI singles, and catcher Jair Camargo hit his 17th home run of the season.

TODAY’S SLATE

TWINS at Detroit, 12:10pm
LYNX at Indiana, 6pm
VIKINGS at Seattle, preseason, 9pm, oh God can it already be that time of the summer

SAINTS vs Louisville, 7:07pm

ON DECK

LOONS at Nashville, Friday, Leagues Cup