Kyle Gibson
vs
Trent Thornton
Gibson hopes to keep the good vibes going with another shutout tonight.
Opposing that is Thornton in his rookie campaign. He's done well this year. He strikes out a bunch of guys, walks way more than Rhu_Ru finds comfortable, and gives up some home runs. He lost his first start against the Twins in April. Let's make that two losses against the Twins!
So the Twins once again showed some resiliency by stomping on the Blue Jays 8-0 last night after a disappointing weekend at Yankee Stadium. This a characteristic that was in short supply of previous Twins teams and a nice switch. More please.
Jose Berrios up for the Twins tonight and has pitched about as well as advertised and as we all hoped: 5-1 record, 0.97 WHIP, a strikeout an inning, and an 8-46 walks to SO ratio. He’s establishing himself as easily the staff ace and a legitimate MLB #1 pitcher. Blue Jays have Aaron Sanchez who’s been pretty average this year. He got rocked last game he pitched which contributed mightily to his 1.49 WHIP. My hope is that these trends continue for tonight.
Vlad Jr. has been up to the bigs for about a week now and Blue Jays fans finding out that it’s not easy for a 20-year old to walk right into a MLB lineup and start mashing. An .152 average with no HRs and 1 RBI is pretty humbling no doubt, but the guy will eventually rake. Let’s just hope that it’s not for a couple more days.
Game time at 6:07p Central. C’mon Twins smoke the Jays, but wait until after you defeat Toronto on the field.
Lineup:
RF Kepler
SS Polanco
DH Cruz
LF Rosario
C Garver
1B Gonzalez
2B Schoop
3B Adrianza
CF Buxton
Game off to a good start, up 1-0.
It felt good to finally win a game in Yankee Stadium. It would feel even better winning a series there, I bet. To get that, it would help if Michael Pineda could pitch a shutout against his former team. Or at least turn in a quality start. He's been pretty below average so far with a 2-2 record and a 6.21 ERA. The Twins hitters go up against Domingo Germán, 5-1 with a 2.56 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, and a strikeout per inning. So it's not a good day for betting the farm. On the other hand, we might bang a few more out of that bandbox again today, you never know. Play ball!
I feel like this is a good team, but in order for this all to work, they're going to have to vanquish these pinstriped hacks.
The curse ends here. Let's hope for a pleasing Odor.
Here we are. The Yankees. The Twins have looked good so far, but looking good is what the Yankees start doing well before they even step on the field. Most teams in baseball struggle to sustain success. The Yankees, with all their resources, find it hard to avoid. I suppose they struggle to sustain failure - they're gonna end up good, without even trying.
Yes, the Yankees have had injuries. No, this isn't the absolute best lineup or pitching staff that NY could have fielded. But it's still darn scary. And it's especially scary because there's a, let's say, "excruciatingly painful", history of when the Twins and Yankees play in May.
But maybe this iteration of the Twins will be something different. Maybe Nelson Cruz and whoever is playing catcher tonight will each hit 3 bombs, because that's what they seem to do. Maybe we'll get Good Gibson showing up to embarrass James Paxton. Maybe Aaron Boone will be dared by his bench coach into having every player only sacrifice bunt, no matter the circumstance. And maybe he'll actually take that dare. I sure hope so.
Or maybe it'll just be some good baseball, either way. I sure hope for that too.
Down 1-0 in the top of the first. Plenty of time to come back. Go Twins!
Collin McHugh
vs
Martin Pérez
The calendar rolls to May and the Twins resume starting at the usual 7:10 p.m. time. Hopefully they also resume scoring more runs than the other side.
So can the Twins keep the momentum going after a classic Odorizzi-Verlander barn burner last night? More importantly can the Astros recover, knowing that there is a new tough guy on the block this year? Well that's why they play the games.
Astros putting up Gerrit Cole who hasn't been super great this year, but definitely gets the SOs, averaging 1.5 inning this year. He had one bad start that has inflated his ERA but should be a pitcher this potent Twins lineup can get to. Michael Pineda up against the Astros again after seeing them last week. Pineda didn't pitch horribly against the 'stros but took the loss. Let's hope for some sweet revenge.
Rainy and cold today unfortunately. Doesn't it seem like our weather has been a month behind since February? I'm guessing they get this in as the rain shouldn't be too heavy and Wednesday and Thursday don't look super great either. First Pitch at 6:40p once again.
Twins Line up:
RF Kepler
SS Polanco
DH Cruz
LF Roasario
1B Cron
2B Schoop
3B Adrianza
C Castro
CF Buxton
Alright, boys, you have one goal tonight.
