There's a game today - first time since the opener that a win will put the Twins over .500.
Also, there's a chance for their first series sweep.
Also, also, we'll get another chance to see if Pelfrey really has come back to life.
He'll be opposed by John Danks.
[edit] GO WILD!
Nolasco returns! Lucky for him, he's facing off against the worst offense in the league, so... I'm expecting good things from him. We're adjusting our criteria for "good things", given that it's Nolasco, so I'm thinking he labors through 104 pitvhes in five and a third innings, gives up 3 runs and everyone agrees that it could have been a lot worse.
Noesi takes the hill for the White Sox. He gives up lots of home runs, but that's not exactly a tool in our bag, unless Arcia or vargas gets ahold of one, so... key in on the fact that he doesn't strike many out and that he has a tendency to walk folk? Man, he's not a very good pitcher, is he.
Go Twins!
Go Twins Go!
Trevor May and Chris Sale.
I'm out to eat with Sour Cream so this kind of snuck up on me. The draft is on here, so hopefully I can join the game later and avoid this.
Probables:
DET: Greene (3-1, 3.00)
MIN: Hughes, P (0-4, 4.39)
Lineups:
Doubles:
1. Danny SS
2. Doz 2B
3. Mauer DH
4. Plouffe! 3B
5. Escobar LF
6. Arcia RF
7. Vargas 1B
8. Hermann C
9. Schafer CF
kats:
1. Davis CF
2. Kinsler 2B
3. Cabrera 1B
4. Martinez DH
5. Martinez RF
6. Cespedes LF
7. Castellanos 3B
8. McCann C
9. Romine SS
Sanchez (1-2, 5.96 ERA) vs. Big Pelf! (1-0, 2.65 ERA)
Welcome back to Tuesday game previews, Big Pelf!
Admittedly, he had a pretty good outing in his last start. It could even be argued that his last two were good. Hopefully that is something he can keep up tonight, although with his allergies to strikeouts, that may be difficult against the Tigers. A quick look at his 4.99 xFIP doesn't fill me with a ton of confidence that this isn't just smoke and mirrors.
I'm going to be in Toledo for the next couple days, so I might actually be able to watch this series. I hope to see a win against this dang team.
After being thoroughly abused by the Tigers in Motown to open the season earlier this month, the felines come to the friendly confines of Target Field. Over 3 games, el Tigres shut down the Twinkies to a tune of 22-1. Just about how we were all expecting to start off the new season (even if we were hoping for something else).
The end of the inaugural month of baseball has found a bit more success, though we started with a very low bar. Somehow, the hometown team is only a couple games away from .500, and only (heh) 4.5 games out of first. After splitting the recent road trip, Minnesota comes back for an 11-game homestand, their longest of the season. Unfortunately, they'll open it up against the same 3 pitchers that toyed with them to start the year.
Of course, before you get too excited (seriously, what's wrong with you?), keep this little nugget from the Cornman in mind:
The team is last in the league in OBP, SLG, OPS (and perhaps obviously OPS+) and RBI, 14th out of 15 for BA and tied for last in Runs Scored. The Twins have a combined 36 extra base hits - 15 less than the league average.
Go team go!
Continue reading 2015 Game 19: Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins
Game in progress
The good news is that we don't have to watch our favorite team take on Felix Hernandez any more in this series.
Trevor May (1-1 4.76 ERA, 3.04 FIP)
vs.
James Paxton (0-1 8.40 ERA, 4.64 FIP)
I should really do xFIP, but I'm about to go run some errands, and I can't be arsed to do anything other than a quick bbref lookup. It looks like this Paxton fellow has been almost as good as Hughes at keeping the ball on the correct side of the outfield fence. I'd expect that to change.
On that note: the Twins as a team have 8 home runs. Nelson Cruz has 9.
West coast baseball for a short spell. The beginning of this game will compete with the Wild game so make sure you give your thumb a warm up before you furiously flip back and forth between the two games.
On paper, this is a good pitching matchup. Phil Hughes throws for the Twins, King Felix for Seattle. I hope the Twins win 2 out of 3 this weekend.
