Duensing
v
Doubront
From mlb.com:
Duensing had less than 24 hours notice of his last start vs. Cleveland on July 29 because of the Francisco Liriano trade a day earlier. But he responded with his best start of the year, holding the Indians to one run on five hits over a six innings.
Maybe he should be the surprise starter instead of a spot starter.
Josh Tomlin
v
Scott Diamond
Liriano
v
Floyd
Bad news guys, (a) Jeremy is back. The good news is that he's not scheduled to start against the Twins during this series. Unfortunately, Blackburn is also back and scheduled to start.
Nick Blackburn
v
Luke Hochever
Blackburn started for Rochester four times, pitched 21 innings, and have up eight runs (six earned). He also struck out seven, walked five, and gave up 20 hits. Proving he had a lot nothing else to learn, the Twins decided to call him up.
Tommy Hunter
v
Francisco Liriano
I haven't actually seen any movies recently, but I'm guessing others may have. I just wanted an excuse to laugh at translations of domestic movie titles.
Oh, I also heard Breaking Bad is back, so maybe some people want to discuss that. It certainly did well in ratings, breaking its previous high of something with 2.9 million viewers for the opener.
A.J. Griffen
v
Francisco Liriano
Griffen makes his fourth career start tonight. He's pitched 18 innings and has a 2.00 ERA, but no win thanks to the A's offense.
The Twins have company at the bottom of the AL: the Mariners. They're tied at 36 wins but the Mariners are ahead in losses: 51-49. Along with the Royals, they are the only teams with fewer than 40 wins. With some good play against the A's and O's, the Twins could move into 23rd place! They're already ahead of four NL teams: Astros, Cubs, Rockies, and Padres with the Phillies narrowly ahead of the Twins.
Liriano
v
Perez
I was thinking about the general good vibes about this season's team. In April they were awful, managing a meager six wins. May was a big improvement, with the Twins tripling their win total. June was helped by Interleague and the Twins finished 13-12 for the month. Comparing through 82 games last year, the Twins are actually a game behind: 35-47 versus 36-46 from 2011. Last year, however, had The Suck(tm) of August and September: 7-21 and 6-20 for the final two months. With the team healthier this year, they might be able to avoid the free-fall and have a chance to lose fewer than 90 games.
Chen
v
Liriano
Final home game before the All-Star break and the Twins have a good chance to win another series. Right now, they're right behind Seattle for getting out of the AL basement.
Sanchez
v
Diamond
Sanchez has been quite terrible this year. Diamond has been quite awesome this year. Piece of cake.