Nik Turley vs. Matt Cain, 3:05 p.m.

Aside from Ervin Santana, the Twins' starting rotation coming out of spring training is in disarray. And the Twins have so little depth that they have recalled 2 starting pitchers and placed them back in the rotation after they had lost their spots due to ineffectiveness. And that was before June.

Thanks to Hector Santiago's sore shoulder, the Twins were forced to find another starter. The Twins decided not to go with Chris Heston, who they recently claimed off waivers, or even try to stretch out Tyler Duffey, who has pretty much been the Twins' best reliever, and instead called up Nik Turley.

What is a Nik Turley? On the surface, this appears to be a lot like a lot of the Twins' desperate moves this season that haven't worked out so well, like a spot start by Nick Tepesch (who was released off the 40-man to make room for Heston) or calling up Jason Wheeler or Drew Rucinski to be fresh arms for the bullpen or even claiming Heston. Turley is a former 50th-round draft pick that the team signed as a nondescript minor league free agent in the offseason, so bringing him up just would seem to be another callup of a replacement-level arm for a team desperate to find rotation help.

However, he's put some numbers in the minors that make him more intriguing than the typical minor league free agent. What's most noticeable is a sudden surge in strikeouts. Turley was drafted in 2008 and has never put up big strikeout rates (or even more than 1 per inning) until last year, when he suddenly struck out 48 in 35 2/3 innings. However, that was when he pitched almost exclusively out of the bullpen in AA, so the Red Sox weren't overly impressed and let him leave as a free agent.

The Twins assigned him to AA despite being pretty old for that level (he'll be 27 on 9/11) and he made a couple relief appearances before moving into the rotation. He instantly impressed with 5 hitless innings in his first start, then he really opened some eyes when he struck out 14 batters, including a Southern League record 8 in a row, on April 25. The Twins then immediately decided to move Turley up to Rochester to provide a bigger challenge.

Turley again made a couple scoreless relief appearances before moving into the rotation. In his first start on May 16, he struck out 9 batters in 4 scoreless innings. The Red Wings continued to stretch him out over his next few outings before it all came together on June 6 when Turley struck out 15 batters in 6 innings, meaning 15 of the 18 outs he got were on strikeouts, and 14 of those Ks were swinging. He also struck out the first 9 batters he faced.

Of course, the big question is where did this come from? As far as I can tell, he hasn't added a pitch or switched to an unusual pitching motion. Turley is 6-foot-4 and 195 pounds, so he is tall and thin and throws over the top with a compact windup that is reminiscent of David Price. Turley, unfortunately, doesn't have Price's velocity.

He doesn't have an unusual repertoire. He throws a big curveball and a slider to go along with his fastball. A story on him from 4 years ago talked about his curveball and changeup and didn't mention a slider, so he might have scrapped his changeup and added the slider.  Turley's recent surge might be him just maturing and figuring out how to pitch.

It's doubtful that Turley is going to continue to be so dominant at the major league level. However, Turley deserves a chance to prove he belongs at this level and the Twins have no other viable options at the moment. Maybe whatever magic or luck the Twins have used to propel them to a 2.5-game lead 1/3 of the way through the season will continue with Turley.

The timing is right for Turley to make his debut. The Giants are dead last in MLB in OPS+ at a woeful 75. Plus, the Twins have won 3 in a row and have already clinched a series win and a winning roadtrip, so the pressure is off for Turley. Of course, when a 50th-round draft pick reaches the major leagues, the pressure is already off.

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.

Alex Cobb vs. Kyle Gibson, 1:10 CDT

The Twins have certainly had a strange home-and-road split this year as for as win-loss record this year. And it will be difficult this homestand to start reversing the home woes since the Rays have pretty much made themselves at home at Target Field since it was built and the Twins then welcome the Astros next, who have the best record in the American League.

The Twins will then head out West to play a three-city road trip and none of the 3 opponents currently has a winning record, so it could be that we will continue for a while to hear about their odd tendency to do much better on the road.

Of course, the Twins can start to change that narrative by winning today. Gibson hasn't had a quality start in at least his last 7 opportunities, so the offense and bullpen will most likely have to do a lot of the heavy lifting.

It is an interesting pitching matchup in that both players were drafted out of high school in 2006. Cobb was taken in the 4th round and Gibson was taken in the 36th round. He of course, didn't sign and went to the University of Missouri and was drafted by the Twins in the first round 3 years later.

The good news is, regardless of how well Gibson and the Twins do today, they are guaranteed to lead the AL Central by at least 2 games on Memorial Day. Even I, the "eternal optimist" wouldn't have predicted that 2 months ago.

Hector Santiago vs. Trevor Bauer, 12:10 p.m.

Happy Mother's Day! Everyone, think pink!

The Twins are roughly 1/5 of the way through their season and they have already booted 3 pitchers from their rotation, DFA-ed Michael Tonkin, came close to demoting a struggling Byron Buxton (again) and have a losing record at home.

So, of course, the Twins are 5 games over .500 and are ensured of leaving Cleveland today in first place.

How have they done it? Well, it must be the new additions made by the new front office, right. Well, not really. At least, not on the surface. Despite a hot start by new catchers Jason Castro and Chris Gimenez, Twins catchers have combined for a .627 OPS. And Matt Belisle, the only other addition, has an ERA over 8.00.

So how have they done it? One big difference is defense. The Twins were 28th in MLB in Defensive Runs Saved last year and were 3rd coming into Saturday's game.  Development of young players has helped as Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario have shown improved plate discipline, Kennys Vargas and Jorge Polanco are giving more consistent quality at-bats and even Buxton is showing signs of getting back to the exciting player he was in September last year.

Perhaps the biggest difference is the Twins now finally have 2 quality starting pitchers and perhaps even 3 with the addition of Jose Berrios. Ervin Santana has been outstanding, allowing 1 run or less in 7 of his first 8 starts. His great start has somewhat overshadowed Santiago, who rather quietly has a 2.76 ERA, which is a 144 ERA+.

So far, Santana and Santiago have given the Twins their best 1-2 starting pitcher punch since rookie Francisco Liriano was outpitching the eventual Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana, which was 11 years ago. If Berrios continues to pitch like he did Saturday, that would give the Twins a trio of outstanding starters, all from the Caribbean. There's got to be a nickname in there somewhere.

Chris Sale vs. Ervin Santana

It's a day for aces. Not only do Sale and Santana have some pretty crazy numbers thus far, the Rochester Red Wings will be sending out their young ace, Jose Berrios, barring any weather concerns. That AAA game might have more bearing on the Twins' season than their own game as a good start by Berrios could very well convince the Twins that he should be the pitcher called up to replace Kyle Gibson in the rotation.

As for the game in Minneapolis, hopefully the Twins can continue to pound Sale like they did in his recent outings when he was in a White Sox uniform.

Michael Fulmer vs. Kyle Gibson

After the game yesterday, the Twins demoted Adalberto Mejia and put Justin Haley on the DL, but the corresponding moves weren't announced, although it was pretty clear that Jose Berrios was not one of those being called up. Late last night from LEN3: "Source says Vargas and Boshers coming up."

So the good news is that the Twins are going to a 12-man pitching staff and can win the series with a victory today. The bad news is they send out their worst starting pitcher to the mound today, at least thus far in the early going.

Twins management might argue that Mejia was the Twins' worst starter thus far this season, but while he struggled with control and it was almost painful to watch at times, his numbers still haven't been as bad as Gibson's, whose ERA and FIP are both north of 6. Gibson worked hard in the offseason to rework his mechanics. Thus far, you'd have to say it's still a work in progress at best.

Meanwhile, the Twins are waiting on the fallout from the scrum involving Miguel Sano yesterday, who threw a punch at Tigers catcher James McCann after the Tigers threw a pitch behind Sano in an obvious retaliation to Twins rookie pitcher Justin Haley hitting the Tigers' JaCoby Jones in the face with a pitch. When the Tigers' Matt Boyd threw behind Sano, he took a few steps toward Boyd and wagged his finger at Boyd to let him know he did not appreciate that. It was pretty obvious that Sano didn't intend to charge the mound, but while he was sending his message to Boyd, McCann jammed his catcher's glove (while still wearing his mask) in Sano's face and Sano reacted to it by throwing a punch at a guy in full catcher's gear.

The umpires did what was expected and ejected Sano as well as ejecting Boyd, apparently not for the pitch but for taking steps toward Sano that escalated the situation. Nothing happened to McCann, who was the obvious instigator.

The question now is what happens to those involved. MLB will be reviewing the situation, which could result in fines and/or suspensions. If Sano is suspended and nothing or little happens to McCann, I think the Twins would have a right to be indignant.

Mejia being sent out so quickly could also serve as a warning for Byron Buxton and his offensive struggles that he could be on a short leash. Inserting Kennys Vargas' bat into the lineup won't be easy since it means moving either Robbie Grossman (from DH) or Joe Mauer (from first base). Grossman has been the Twins' best hitter besides Sano, so Grossman will have to play a corner outfield spot to remain in the lineup, which means moving Max Kepler (who's been hitting well) or Eddie Rosario (who's been heating up the last few games after a very slow start).

Mauer would seem like a prime candidate to get reduced playing time because of his slow start at the plate. However, he's actually been hitting well with very poor luck, especially on line drives. He had another hard line drive that was caught in the outfield yesterday after hitting a double off the center field wall when taking over for Sano.

Buxton seems like a prime candidate to sit with Kepler or Rosario moving to center and Grossman taking over the vacant corner outfield spot and Vargas DHing. That seems very likely today since Buxton has sat Gibson's 2 previous starts as manager Paul Molitor hopes that Gibson gets back to his ground ball ways and thus Buxton's defense won't be needed as much.

Stat of the day: The Twins are 0-3 in 1-run games and are the only AL team that hasn't won a 1-run game. The Tigers are 5-1 in 1-run games. The Twins have a +12 run differential. The Tigers are -23.

Ervin Santana vs. Jose Quintana

The Twins started last year at 2-19 on the road before finally winning a road series in mid-May. Getting a win today to take the series would get this first road trip off to a good start and keep the momentum going after the Twins sustained their first loss yesterday.

This will be the third left-handed starter the Twins will face, which figures to be a year-long struggle for the Twins with 4 starting players left-handed. So far, the Twins are 2-0 vs. lefty starters, but that was largely because their own pitching and defense kept the game close until they could do a lot of their damage against the bullpen. So far, the Twins have actually been better vs. lefties (.770 OPS vs. .702 against righties), but that is largely skewed by the ineptitude of the left-handers in the Kansas City bullpen.

Quintana was the subject of numerous offseason trade rumors after the White Sox traded Chris Sale and Adam Eaton for prospects. Quintana struggled in his first start as his team's No. 1 starter, giving up 6 runs, including 3 home runs, to the Tigers on Opening Day. Santana is hoping to build on his great Opening Day performance of 1 run on 7 innings in a win over the Royals.