This is the Battle for the AL Central (lead)
Perhaps the biggest series of the season (so far)
....so...
Make or Break?
Do or Die?
Win or Go Home?
All or Nothing?
Sink or Swim?
Now or Never?
Put Up or Shut Up?
...or...
is it just, "one game at a time"?
we shall see!
Kyle Gibson
-v-
Mike Clevinger
Only three more home runs separate this season from surpassing the '63 team. After this, we get to see the team pass other team seasons in their way to breaking 300 for the first time ever.
Well that was a fun, big boy win last night, Odorizzi looking like his spring 2019 self, Mays hitting 100 on the radar gun to finish 2 solid innings, Jake Cave botching a simple grounder in the outfield, Sano’s pitch hit blast... Here’s a little Freealonzo Fun Fact: Last time the Twins beat Atlanta with a walk off homerun in Minneapolis, these same two teams played the next day and the Twins, with their ace on the mound, won in extras. Can history repeat itself?!?
Atlanta has Mike Foltynewicz on the mound who's back to the bigs after pitching about as well as I can pronounce his name earlier in the season. A 6.37 ERA, more hits than innings pitched, and a 2-5 record on a first place team. Also the dude gives up nearly 2.5 bombas per 9 innings so sorry 1964 Twins home run record, looks like your place in history could be gone by 10:30p tonight.
Berrios on the mound for the Twins and a team that looks like it’s locked in right now. Should be a glorious night for baseball. 7:10p first pitch. Enjoy.
Twins Line Up
CF Kepler
SS Polanco
DH Cruz
LF Rosario
C Garver
2B Arraez
3B Sano
RF Gonzalez
1B Cron
The wife is on a business trip, and I've got two little rugrats, so I'll be keeping this brief. A pretty decent Braves team is coming through Minnesota starting a three game series tonight. This will be immediately followed by a four game series against the Spiders. Safe to say this will be a very important homestand. Thankfully, they started it off right with a sweep against the Royals. Let's continue the current trend.
The Twins will face a very sharp rightie (and Cy Young candidate) in Soroka tonight. The Twins counter his stinky pitches with their very own Odor Eater.
Win Probability: 60.5%
Twins Hall of Fame weekend wraps up today with the team holding a chance to sweep the Kansas City Royals. Even though the rain delayed last night's game and ceremony, and the speeches were pretty bad, it sure was fun seeing that panoply of former Twins stars lined up on the field.
Jake Odorizzi was scheduled to start for the Twins but he's been scratched from the lineup. Instead we'll get another outing from Devin Smeltzer (0-1, 2.91 ERA) and the Bomba Squad will face Brad Keller (7-10, 4.01 ERA). Play ball!
Happy Joe Nathan Day!
Hopefully, the home team will honor its best ever reliever (seriously, his 2006 in particular was insane -- Rivera never matched Nathan's 39 FIP-) by giving up a few obligatory baserunners, then utterly destroying all remaining batters on their way to a scoreless game.
Attempting that feat will be Kyle Gibson, and you know what? Good Gibby could accomplish that. In his 10 wins, he's been holding the opposition to a .544 OPS, coupled with a 2.44 ERA.
In his losses.... it's a .982 and a 7.52. I don't know for sure, but that's got to be up there in terms of game outcome splits. I still think he's your third starter in a playoff rotation, but I'd have Odorizzi standing by from the first pitch on.
Gotta stick with Cruz for a boomstick tonight.
Go Twins!
Did the Twins lose painfully yesterday? Yes.
Did Cleveland also lose? Yes.
Are the Twins playing a middling-or-worse team this weekend? Yes.
Are the Indians also playing a middling-or-worse team this weekend? Yes.
Are there other questions I can ask, and then answer in the affirmative? Yes.
Am I going to do so? Yes.
Do the Twins still have a 3-game lead on the Indians? Yes.
Are they probably going to keep that lead through the weekend? Yes.
Do the Yankees have a TV network? Yes.
Has this been a fun season so far? Yes.
I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there's no real reason to be a nay-sayer. The Twins get a chance to play the Royals, at home, and hopefully they can make hay out of it. They can be hay-sayers, if you will.
Alright, I'm clearly sleep deprived or something. Sparkman vs. Perez tonight, and here's hoping we enjoy this weekend of baseball!
Day game alert!
Pineda
vs
Yamamota
Cleveland hosts Astros in their series finale. Salazar makes his season debut against Cole so this is good time to increase the division lead.
Berríos
vs
Alcantara
Twins pick up Sam Dyson and Marcos Diplan.
Finally the schedule flips as the Twins take on the struggling Miami Marlins while Cleveland hosts the Astros. Miami has the worst record in the NL and a -97 run differential so here's hoping the Twins can take advantage and win all three of these interleague games. They will have to do it without the hot bat of Nelson Cruz as no DH this trip and Baldelli has no plans to play Nelly at First Base.
Jake Odorizzi on the mound for the Twins and he's definitely regressed to the mean after a monster start to the season. This Miami lineup seems like the perfect time to get back to the Odo we saw in May. Marlins have rookie Zac Gallen on the mound, who has pitched competently for a last place team. Last outing against the White Sox was stellar as he threw 7 scoreless innings. Hopefully it was due to the line-up and not that he has found his way.
Marlins stadium (whatever its called) not super conducive to the bomba so the Twins may have to score runs the old fashioned way this series.
Game time at 6:10p.
Twins Lineup:
RF kepler
SS Polanco
C Garver
LF Rosario
3B Sano
2B Arraez
1B Gonzalez
CF Buxton
P Odorizzi
