Twins focus on two-strike approach as strikeouts pile up

TORONTO — The Twins entered Friday’s series opener with Toronto on a five-game losing streak that has dropped them under .500 for the first time this season. During that stretch, the Twins, who are on pace to set a single-season strikeout record, scored just six runs.

So, what’s the focus as they try to course correct?

Their two-strike approach has been a prominent topic of conversation in recent days.

“Our glaring weakness is with two strikes. That’s something we need to get better on. I take full responsibility for that,” hitting coach David Popkins said. “We’ve got to better prepare and execute in those situations. Some of that is when things go bad in baseball, it starts to get a little mental. Everyone is pressing and they want to get it done so bad, and they get a little tight in those situations. Some of that is on our end. We need to do a better job as a staff and myself especially in preparing them for those situations.”

The Twins, who entered Friday leading the majors in whiff rate at 29 percent, have seen many of those two-strike at-bats result in strikeouts. They entered Friday averaging more than 10 Ks per game.

While general manager Thad Levine said they projected before the season that they’d likely be around the top 10 in strikeout rate because of player profiles, they certainly didn’t envision this.

“As long as you can, you want to fix that in a way that is not, ‘Hey, you’re striking out too much. Stop striking out,’” Popkins said. “But there comes a time, especially the last four or five games, even more so before that, comes a time where you have to address it. And that’s something that was addressed. And we’re queuing up, making adjustments on our end.”

While have been striking out plenty, they’ve also been taking their walks, tied for sixth in the majors entering the weekend. And though the walks are welcomed, Popkins said they like to trade some of those walks for earlier contact.

“It’s OK to go up there 0-0 and just shoot the ball the other way,” Popkins said. “You don’t always have to wait until you’re behind or even kind of take what the game gives you. Granted, we don’t want to lose our strength. We’re the best team in baseball in hitter’s counts, so that is something we need to leverage as well. But at the same time, we need to make sure our weakness is not weighing our offense.”

Injury updates

Jorge Polanco was not in the starting lineup Friday, and manager Rocco Baldelli said he was heading out pregame to get magnetic resonance imaging done on his left hamstring, the same one he strained last month.

Polanco left Thursday’s game early with hamstring tightness, and Baldelli said Friday that it hadn’t gone away.

“We don’t want to run him or get him moving until we know what we’re dealing with,” Baldelli said.

Reliever Caleb Thielbar will soon be getting an MRI of his own, on his right oblique. Thielbar, who was placed on the injured list on Friday, will return to Minnesota ahead of his teammates to do so. Thielbar strained his oblique in May, forcing him out of action for a month. He pitched in one game after returning, and he felt fine doing that, he said.

But a couple days later, after playing catch this Tuesday, he noticed it tightening up — in a different spot than before, and less severe, he believes — throughout the game.

“I would say the pain level isn’t as high as it was before, but we’ll see,” Thielbar said.

The Twins called up Josh Winder to take Thielbar’s spot on the roster.

Over in St. Paul, first baseman/outfielder Joey Gallo began a rehab assignment on Friday night as he comes back from a hamstring strain. The schedule has him playing first base Friday, serving as the designated hitter on Saturday and then going out into the outfield on Sunday.

He’ll be joined on rehab by Kenta Maeda (triceps strain), who will make his third start for the Saints on Saturday.