Game 53: Twins at Angels

Jose Berrios vs. Ricky Nolasco, 2:37 p.m.

This is one crazy sport. The Twins have been having the worst time figuring out the back of their rotation. Adalberto Mejia and Kyle Gibson started the first 2 games of this series basically by default because the Twins had no one in the minors even close to being capable of replacing them. So of course, both pitched well and the Twins won the first 2 games of the series, although it took a 9th-inning rally in the first game, but only because the Twins' offense was stymied for the first 8 innings.

In Game 3 of the series, the Twins sent out Ervin Santana, who has been pitching unbelievably well to start the season. The Angels' offense is missing superstar Mike Trout and Cameron Maybin and struggled against Mejia and Gibson, so with Santana on pace to set a record for fewest hits allowed in a season, I was wondering if he might get his second no-hitter of his career. Of course, the Angels hit 3 home runs, including a grand slam by Albert Pujols for No. 600, to knock Santana out early (although I'm sure Jeff A would argue that Santana could have stayed in longer and I wouldn't have disagreed.)

So the good news is it is Berrios vs. Nolasco. The bad news is the pitching matchups have not gone according to what you would think they should based on the results this season coming into the game. I guess that's why they play the game.

Nolasco, of course, is a former Twin. His results have not been good for the Angels. Twins fans will most likely think that it's just Ricky being Ricky, however, one difference is that Nolasco's high ERA is actually better than his FIP, which has not been the case for Nolasco throughout his career, including his tenure with the Twins. While his K rate has increased slightly, so has his walk rate and his home run rate has really jumped.

Hopefully, the Twins will help that ERA continue to climb. Of course, even better would be seeing Berrios getting back to being dominant and taking advantage of a weakened Angels lineup.

17 thoughts on “Game 53: Twins at Angels”

  1. I would have been annoyed if Nolasco made it a whole game against the Twins without giving up a homer.

  2. Just came in from mowing the lawn and turned on the game in time for Sano to give the Twins the lead. According to my thermometer it is 1-0-0 in the back yard. Yeesh, I hate summer.

  3. Im starting to think Brian Dozier is not going to get to 40 home runs this season.

    1. I'll be happy with 30 considering he's only done that many once. However, he only had 6 home runs a year ago at this point with a .665 OPS. He's off to a better start this year.

  4. Twins bullpen gave up 4 runs in this series in 4 games and 13 1/3 innings. 3 of those came with 2 outs in the ninth on a meaningless 3-run homer in an 11-2 game.

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