Written By Brandon Warne (ColdOmaha.com)
It’s forgivable if you haven’t noticed what we’re about to tell you about as the Minnesota Twins have played poorly on this June slate that’s been largely dotted with home games. The Twins came into June 15-36, with the expectation that they might be able to cut into that won-loss deficit with 17 of the first 20 games of the month coming at Target Field.
Instead, they’ve gone just 6-12 so far, with three games against the Phillies left in that 20-game stretch.
But June has been particularly kind to Kurt Suzuki. Coming into Sunday’s game, he’d hit .326/.341/.512 in the month of June. Reel that back to mid May, and Suzuki had hit .297/.325/.446 over a 22-game stretch. That’s 77 plate appearances, which isn’t too shabby of a sample size. And maybe it usually wouldn’t mean anything. Suzuki, after all, hasn’t been an offensive juggernaut in his big league career since being drafted in the second round in 2004 out of Cal State Fullerton.
At least not as one might have expected with that draft status and an 1100 college OPS that led him to be dubbed Kurt Klutch back in his days with the Titans. Heck, Suzuki performed well enough offensively for an entire half to be the Twins’ only offensive All Star in 2014 when they hosted the game. That year, Suzuki hit .309/.365/.396 before the break, not only earning the only All Star bid of his career to date, but also a two-year, $12 million extension with the Twins with a vesting option for 2017.
To say things haven’t went well since is an understatement. Suzuki hit just .253/.313/.362 over the rest of the 2014 season, good for a .675 OPS that, as disappointing as it was, was still a far cry from what he did in 2015 (.610) and had done through the first two months this season (.559).
And while a .647 OPS heading into Sunday’s game wasn’t necessarily something to write home about, Suzuki had caught fire and there had to be some sort of reason, right?
Click here to read about Suzuki’s secret weapon.