Well that sucked. On the plus side, they are undefeated in nine innings. Unfortunately, two games took extra innings.
Kenta Maeda
vs
Matthew Boyd
Boyd had a scoreless start to open the Tiger's season. It wasn't a particular great start with more walks than strikeouts but with only three hits it was good enough.
Lineup
Garver - C
Garlick - RF
Cruz - DH
Polanco - 2B
Buxton - CF
Rooker - LF
Sanó - 1B
Astudillo - 3B
Simmons - SS
Another year, another contest. I will close these sometime Thursday.
Spoiler your predictions for the following:
AL East:
AL Central:
AL West:
WC:
WC:
NL East:
NL Central:
NL West:
WC:
WC:
AL WC:
ALDS (2):
ALCS:
NL WC:
NLDS (2):
NLCS:
WS (including total games):
AL MVP:
AL CY:
AL ROY:
AL Manager:
NL MVP:
NL CY:
NL ROY:
NL Manager:
First Manager Fired:
Twins’ end-of-season WAR leaders for position players & pitchers:
Blake Snell
vs
Tony Gonsolin
Dodgers stuck it to the Rays last night. Kershaw pitched well. I got two out of three kids to watch an inning, so success for us too.
Astros try to hold off elimination, they're bound to win at least one. The Dodgers meanwhile figured out how to score against the Braves but now have to pair that with not letting them score even more.
NLCS, 5:05 p.m. FS1
Julio Urias
vs
Kyle Wright
ALCS, 7:40 p.m. TBS
Tyler Glasnow
vs
Zack Greinke
More games! AL teams switch dugouts!
Marlins vs Braves, 1:08 p.m.
Pablo López vs Ian Anderson
Athletics vs Astros, 2:35 p.m.
Jesús Luzardo vs Jose Urquidy
Rays vs Yankees, 6:10 p.m.
Charlie Morton vs Masahiro Tanaka
Padres vs Dodgers, 8:08 p.m.
TBD vs Clayton Kershaw
Another crushing postseason game. Drown your sorrows with seven other games.
Lance McCullers Jr.
vs
José Berríos
Lineup:
1. Luis Arraez, 2B
2. Max Kapler, CF
3. Nelson Cruz, DH
4. Eddie Rosario, LF
5. Miguel Sanó, 1B
6. Alex Kirilloff, RF
7. Jorge Polanco, SS
8. Marwin Gonzalez, 3B
9. Ryan Jeffers, C
Spoiler your picks below. They are due some point Tuesday. Add the number of games to win the series for a possible bonus if you get it right.
ALWC1: TB vs TOR
ALWC4: CLE vs NYY
ALDS1:
ALWC2: MIN vs HOU
ALWC3: OAK vs CHI
ALDS2:
ALCS:
NLWC1: LA vs MIL
NLWC4: SD vs STL
NLDS1:
NLWC2: ATL vs CIN
NLWC3: CHI vs MIA
NLDS2:
NLCS:
World Series:
Casey Mize
vs
Kenta Maeda
The Twins are 5-4 against the Tigers. As much as it would amuse me for them to finish 5-5 against another Central team, winning helps a lot with earning home field advantage for the wildcard round. Let's score a bunch so Rogers can get some work in without risking the win.
Jake Odorizzi
vs
Lucas Giolito
Coming into this series, I was hoping the Twins to at least split. That's still possible but I'm not counting on it. FanGraphs dropped the Twins to 16.2% to win the division. They have an easier schedule for their final 10 games versus Chicago's final 12 but they need to also make up three games. And consistently score more than two runs a game.
Reynaldo López
vs
José Berríos
A much needed win last night. FanGraphs still has them at 94.9% chance to make the postseason but now as a wildcard instead of the division winner. There are a lot more needed wins over Chicago and Cleveland if they want to win the division.
Josh Donaldson should be activated for tonight's game too. Time for him to start hitting.
