Twins head down to St. Pete to play the scorching hot Rays for a three game series. Rays by far have been the best team in MLB this year with a 43-19 record and only six losses at the horror dome known as The Trop. They are doing this with the 3rd lowest payroll, at $73.2 million, or roughly the cost of two Carlos Correas.
Louie Varland on for the Twins and he's showing signs that he can be a serviceable number 4 or 5 guy. Zach Eflin for the Rays and of course his 7-1 record is going to reflect how well the Rays are playing but his WHIP of 1.0 and nearly a strikeout an inning may play havoc with the assbats the Twins seem to be lugging from town to town these days.
Dodgers have started playing “California Stars” after the game if the team loses—the counter to playing “I Love LA” if the team wins. Pretty funny that they’ve decided Wilco is what losing sounds like
Cleveland comes to town to kick off a four-game weekend series tonight, so this is a chance for the Twins to gain some ground head-to-head on a divisional rival. I'm not sure what to make of this team yet since we haven't seen them hitting on all cylinders since April, but I've been duly impressed with the starting rotation. Pablo Lopez has been solid (considering what we gave up I'd like more out of him), Sonny Grey has been phenomenal, but some regression to the mean has to happen eventually, right? The young guys are getting it done, too, we've seen some great starts by Ryan and Varland. The bullpen has been decent, not outstanding but solid enough to keep games winnable in late innings, with some notable exceptions, of course. I don't know what's wrong with Jorge Lopez, for example, the last two outings of his I've seen were horrendous and he simply could not get an out. It's like he's got relief pitcher yips or something, keeps throwing the ball exactly where he doesn't want to. Anyway, tonight we get Pablo Lopez and Tanner Bibee slinging the horsehide. Let's hope the offense we found in Houston made the trip home and shows up for this series.