Joey Estes
vs
Pablo López
Estes made his MLB debut last week against Seattle. He gave up six runs, five earned, over his 4 ⅔ innings. His MiLB is decent but not great. He's still young as his 22nd birthday happens during this year's Division Series.
The Twins are now 11 wins over .500. Their preseason projections had them barely winning the division at 83 wins. They now predict three additional wins over the final five games to get them to 87 wins. They've finished with 87 wins once as the Twins in 2009 and once as the Senators in 1945. The Tigers finished ahead of them by one win in 1945 but they also played three fewer games. The Senators managed two ties in their 156 games.
López ranks well on several AL leaderboards. He's second in strikeouts; ten more puts him in front if Gausman does not make another start. He's tenth in ERA at 3.61; another solid start would put him ahead of Berríos at ninth with 3.58. Seven shutout innings would put him above Eflin's 3.50 (six scoreless might at 3.4957). His FIP ranks slightly better at sixth with 3.60. Another win puts him at 12 for the season and in a many-way tie for seventh. He's eighth in WHIP, right ahead of Gray. Breaking that apart so he's tenth in the H part and fifth in the W part. K/9 he's third and a high strikeout game might put him second. Fifth in innings pitched, two ahead of Kyle Gibson. Finally, his rWAR is tied with rookie Tanner Bibee for seventh at 3.6 WAR. It's been a great season and he will get first crack at earning a postseason win.
ED
López halfway to the AL strikeout lead.
Looks like both Pablo and Sonny lost their shots at AL leader spots tonight
Meat Raffle hasn't exactly been lights-out the last several outings
That's the Duran appearance we need for the postseason.
"Legs" Vazquez
Tonight it's Max's turn to have a good evening at the dish
Anybody at the game? If so, can you explain the guy who’s screaming and howling?
Twayn's there
I heard a couple of ushers talking about it after the game but I didn't catch any details or background. That stuff's not real uncommon, it often involves alcohol and/or drugs.
I’ve sat near a few in my time (at wrestling shows, such fans are guaranteed) but the noise was…impressive last night.
Strange that this team seemed determined not to do better than six games above .500, and somehow they’ve managed to get to twelve over.
They're 16-8 in their last 24. Pretty impressive run.
It's like they hit 7 games over .500 and were like "oh I didn't know you could do that, lets keep going"