Game 26: A’s vs. Twins

DAY GAME ALERT!

Jharel Cotton (2-3, 5.00 ERA, 3.56 FIP) vs. Kyle Gibson (0-3, 8.06 ERA, 6.99 FIP)

The FIRST PLACE Minnesota Twins finish up the series against the A's at noon today. Quite a difference a year makes as the Twins were a depressing 7-18 at this point last year and, uhhh, it wouldn't get any better from there. It was starting to look like things were headed to 2016 there for awhile, but there's apparently nothing like the AL west (and the Royals) to help turn things back around. Even better, after the first two games of this series, the Twins are back to .500 at home.

Unfortunately, however, Kyle Gibson takes the mound today. I'm on record as preferring he lose his spot in the rotation to Berrios and be given a comfy seat in the bullpen. There's just something about the way he pitches that bugs me and the bad results certainly make that irritation seem much worse. Also, Berrios.

I don't know anything about Jharel Cotton, probably because he's only had 10 starts for the perennially irrelevant A's. It looks like he's struggling with command this year, walking 4 per nine. That should bode well for the Twins who've, from the eye test at least (too lazy to look it up), are showing a rather patient approach these days.

54 thoughts on “Game 26: A’s vs. Twins”

    1. My guess is that it's simply day game after a night game. Some season numbers (obviously in small sample sizes):

      Joe against RHP: .234/.300/.328 (better than lefties, but not exactly good)
      Joe at home: .208/.276/.302
      Joe in day games: .216/.273/.255

  1. Gibson seemingly survived his last start, though I wasn't all that impressed.
    At his present rate, he's not long for this world starting rotation.

  2. I haven't been a Gibson-basher. I've been hoping he'd turn it around. But he hasn't had a good start all year, and even if he settles down from here we won't be able to consider this one a good start. There's really no excuse for keeping him in the rotation and keeping Berrios in Rochester.

    1. Having said that, though, it won't surprise me at all if they decide to bring Mejia back instead.

      1. I find my failure to link to an image of a blind squirrel finding a nut to be a fitting substitute for the actual image.

  3. I'm good with leaving Gibson in for the moment. If he comes out now, Molitor will burn up five or six relievers. He seemed to settle down a little at the end of the second. See if he can get through a few more innings.

    1. There is that, but leaving him in will probably make the comeback taller.

      1. Heh, nevermind- looks like mlb.com has a bit of a bug in their stats pages

        1. It's awesome, the numbers just keep going up!! I'm going to leave that tab open and see what happens.

  4. Rosario drawing a walk got me wondering if that was his first of the year. Well, it's his 4th. Evidently the patience isn't quite developed for at least one Twin yet.

  5. I sure hope all these LOBs come back to haunt the A's. They've had the bases loaded in 3 different innings and have yet to get a hit. They scored on a bases loaded walk, a double play and a sac fly.

  6. Gibson's game score for today is 33. He has yet to reach 50, what an average start is. He got close in his debut with a 48 and previous start with a 44. The only progress is that it's the first start this year without him giving up a home run.

  7. Tonkin appearance and obviously he's the only one to not give up any runs.

  8. Part of me hopes Polanco doesn't swing the bat at all, just to make sure Sano gets a chance.

    1. He certainly should get the green light, but that was not really close to being a strike. Wish he would have just taken his walk and put the tying run in scoring position for Vargas batting from the left side.

    1. Bases loaded with one out, I would have liked to push at least a couple runs across to make it even more exciting, but 2/3 wins ain't bad (and Gibson continued to show his stripes), so tough to complain too loudly.

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