CLEVELAND — Kyle Farmer is willing to admit the thought of getting designated for assignment crossed his mind this year as he went through a tough stretch.
It took until his eighth game to collect his first hit, and things didn’t get much better in the months that followed. On July 12, he finally landed on the injured list with a shoulder strain. In retrospect, he believes that was one of the main issues that plagued him, and he wishes he had taken a break earlier.
But with a healthy shoulder and a tweak to his batting stance, Farmer’s in the best place he has been all year. That tweak came when he was working in the batting cage one day last month and decided to spread his legs wider.
“It feels like I’m almost looking like Jeff Bagwell,” he said, citing the longtime Astros star’s unique stance.
The first time he tried it out in a game was Aug. 13. Not coincidentally, that was the first time he went yard all year.
“I was going forward too much, and I was putting a lot of pressure on my shoulder,” Farmer said. “I think it gets me more behind the baseball and shorter to the ground and more grounded.”
The results speak for themselves.
From that day through Tuesday’s play, Farmer was hitting .333 with a 1.036 OPS. He had five home runs in that stretch with two doubles. He has been even better in September.
“Farm’s been pretty awesome. He’s doing it on both sides of the ball,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He has brought a lot to the table, and he’s been productive. He’s always Kyle Farmer. He’s got that personality that he brings every single day. He keeps everybody going here in a lot of different ways, and we’re thankful to be running him out there right now.”
And Farmer, a leader within the Twins’ clubhouse, is thankful that the Twins stuck with him.
“I’m proud of myself for fighting through adversity,” he said. “We’ve still got two weeks to prove some more things, but I’ve definitely learned a lot about myself and what I’m going to do to change next year.”
Margot’s record 0
Twins outfielder Manuel Margot made an unfortunate bit of history Tuesday when he pinch hit for Matt Wallner and hit into a double play. With that, Margot is now 0 for 29 this season as a pinch hitter, drawing five walks for a total of 34 hitless plate appearances.
That at-bat broke a tie with Jonny Gomes, who went 0 for 28 as a pinch hitter in 2011 for the Reds and Nationals. With the walks, he ties Gomes for most plate appearances pinch hitting without a hit.
It’s a small sample size, but still, Baldelli said it was “hard to look at that stat and completely disregard it.” In his career, Margot is a .144 hitter with a .441 OPS with one home run and eight driven in in 90 pinch hit at-bats.
“There still might be times this year where he might go out and pinch hit in certain situations,” Baldelli said. “His bat-to-ball ability should lead to positive things happening for us.”
Briefly
The Twins will finish their series in Cleveland at 12:10 CDT before heading to Boston for the final three games of their road trip. … Pitcher Randy Dobnak, who was designated for assignment on Monday to make room on the 40-man roster for Cole Irvin, cleared waivers and accepted the assignment to Triple-A St. Paul.
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