The Twins' piranhas have keyed an offensive resurgence this season in Minnesota, relentlessly chomping away at opposing pitchers to key big rallies.
They had no such success in Game 2 of the AL division series against Oakland on Wednesday, looking more like harmless goldfish in a 5-2 loss to the Athletics that left the Twins facing an 0-2 deficit.
After jump-starting so many big innings down the stretch for the Twins, Luis Castillo, Nick Punto, Jason Tyner and Jason Bartlett went a combined 3-for-16 with six strikeouts and never got past second base against Esteban Loaiza and Co.
``It just isn't happening,'' said Punto, who went 1-for-4.
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen affectionately said those four tenacious, light-hitting scrappers ``are like little piranhas. They keep biting and biting and pretty soon you look down and you don't have any legs left.''
There was no biting on Wednesday, one of the biggest reasons the Twins trail the Athletics 2-0 heading back to Oakland for Game 3 on Friday.
Baffled by Loaiza all day, they had one more chance to come through in the ninth inning.
Bartlett had a soft, two-out single in the ninth against closer Huston Street and Castillo walked, bringing Punto to the plate as the tying run. But the hard-nosed third baseman _ who's made a pair of leaping catches on foul balls in the series _ popped out to shallow left to end the game.
``We haven't been able to put anything together,'' Tyner said.
After starting Phil Nevin at DH for Game 1, manager Ron Gardenhire used Tyner in that role on Wednesday.
Searching for offence after a 3-2 loss on Tuesday, Gardenhire hoped putting Tyner, who hit .312 in the regular season, in the No. 8 spot would add the spark that was missing in Game 1.
He called this lineup ``probably our best lineup. ... We have two leadoff guys at the top and two leadoff guys at the bottom. Those guys _ Tyner, Bartlett, Castillo, Punto _ make things happen, run around the bases with speed, force the issue.''
They've been doing that all season, taking extra bases, sliding headfirst into first base and setting the table for Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau and Torii Hunter.
But Loaiza kept all four piranhas off the bases until the fifth inning, when Castillo bounced a pitch off home plate and beat Loaiza's throw to first and Punto's chopper glanced off first baseman Nick Swisher's glove and fell in for another infield hit.
``I think you have to look at the pitching staff more than anything else,'' Gardenhire said. ``This is a good pitching staff, and we're having a hard time right now driving in runs.''
Loaiza, who pitched very well in allowing two runs on eight hits in five-plus innings, got Mauer to groundout to third to get out of the inning unscathed.
``Usually our leadoff guy gets on,'' said Hunter, who took the blame for the loss after his ill-advised dive in centre yielded Mark Kotsay's two-run, inside-the-park homer in the seventh. ``We can do a hit-and-run or a bunt. We didn't have a chance for that.''
After Cuddyer and Morneau hit back-to-back homers to lead off the sixth, Tyner walked with two outs and stole second. But Bartlett followed with an inning-ending strikeout against Kiko Calero.
In two games this series, the Twins have yet to find the balance that played such a big role in their season-ending rally to their fourth AL Central title in five seasons.
After struggling in the first game, the middle of the order did its part on Wednesday, going 6-for-16 with two homers.
Without the spark plugs starting the engine, however, the damage was kept to a minimum and the Twins were in big, big trouble.
``We haven't done it the easy way yet,'' Tyner said. ``We feel like we can go out there and do exactly what they did to us.''
© The Canadian Press, 2007
