Jason Vargas
vs
Martín Pérez
Day game after a clunker last night. This is the final game against the Mets. The Twins split the series in New York so need to win today to salvage a .500 record against a bad team.
Jason Vargas
vs
Martín Pérez
Day game after a clunker last night. This is the final game against the Mets. The Twins split the series in New York so need to win today to salvage a .500 record against a bad team.
Game in progress with Polanco taking on Kershaw. That's a less scary sentence these days than several seasons ago.
Adrian Sampson
vs
Martín Pérez
Game starts about an hour late. The Twins division lead has dropped to 6 after several weeks of average at best play. Final series before the "half"way point of the season. Time to finish strong before a much needed break.
Kyle Gibson
vs
Mike Fiers
No reports of any blisters for Gibson yet. Yet another two-game losing streak, something the Twins have had a lot of the past two weeks (four since mid June). This time however, good(?) luck(?) charm bS is in attendance to cheer on the team.
Charlie Morton
vs
Jake Odorizzi
Former league ERA leader faces current league ERA leader. Odorizzi had two bad starts against against the Royals but he's done with them until at least August. His last start against the Rays went well, his last scoreless start. Magill tried to blow it after but didn't fully succeed.
Morton meanwhile was the starter in the blowout loss to the Rays. The Twins have gone 14-9 since then, an only 90-win pace.
Eduardo Rodriguez
vs
Kyle Gibson
Fourth game of the three-game series.
Twins replaced Blake Parker with Sean Poppen while the Red Sox replaced Velázquez with Josh Smith. Poppen has yet to pitch in MLB but he's done well this year in AAA (not AA though). Josh Smith has pitched 75 games over four seasons in MLB. He has not done well in AAA despite good strikeout and walk numbers.
The teams have scored nine runs over the previous 26 innings so I expect fireworks today.
Gerson Bautista
vs
Jose Berríos
One of these days I'll remember I have Wednesday's game log and not have to hastily post a log while letting the kids stall for bedtime.
Game in progress. Twins up 1-0, no homers yet.
Another game to play in this series to salvage something.
Kepler started the game off right with a home run. Berríos on the mound opposite of Bauer. I don't expect him to be with the team in August.
Martín Pérez hopes to bounce back from his bad start against the Rays. He's lost some of his luster from the beginning of the season. Before the Rays was a workable start against the Angels and a good start against the Mariners (but, Mariners).
Carrasco is an unfortunate late scratch because of health. Cleveland has opted for a bullpen game opened by Clippard.
Insert the rest of what free wrote yesterday about beating Cleveland and driving their probability to win the division to 0%. The Twins already project to have the weakest rest of schedule with an estimated .477 win percentage. The team with the next weakest are the Astros at .481.