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.

Game in progress.