Big four game series starting against the Sox tonight. I mentioned this somewhere else but it sure feels like a long time since the Sox and Twins were going down to the wire at the end of a season, such as it is.
Hopefully we get another outing of good Berríos, for both the Twins and my fantasy team! Cease is getting his third major league start, and the first two weren't great.
As weird as this season has been, at least it's been interesting for us Twins fans.
Hey Big Mike, good to have you back. You see the Twins have really been scuffing along lately. Poor pitching, even poorer hitting, some sloppy fielding to just to add to the misery. So I know you haven't been around lately but it sure would be nice if you made up for your absence (ahem) and blow away a bunch of White Sox batters. Just sayin'...
Dallas Keuchel on the mound for the Sox and he's probably what the Chicago was looking for in a veteran pitcher. Let's hope the Twins can get some timely hits of the crafty lefty.
Oh and Byron Buxton's back too!!!
Fun line up tonight for Twins, let's see if that snaps them out of their zombie like state.
Line Up
1b Sano
SS Polanco
DH Cruz
LF Rosario
RF Gonzalez
3B Adrianza
CF Buxton
2B Vargas
C Jeffers
Need a win tonight.
It's now one game in the rear view mirror, but the Twins got through their 12 games against decent teams stretch relatively unscathed (at least judging by wins and loses). Split the 12 games and especially splitting the six with Cleveland basically put the division crown in a stranglehold. Say what you will about this team, but resilient has to be one of the words you use.
Game two against the White Sox, and the Twins catch a break with Giolito being shut down for the season a day before he was about to start against the Twins. Dude's a great pitcher so whew!, but hopefully not a serious injury. Someone named Ross Detwiler up for the Sox with his 6.79 ERA and 1.67 WHIP. Ouch! Martin Perez pitching for Twins and after his nice start against the Red Sox, basically remembered he was Martin Perez and had a lousy outing against the Nats. Hopefully we can get a nice outing today against a White Sox team that's just kinda interested.
6:40p start again tonight. Will be a warm one at the ballpark but I think the rain should hold off until late.
Twins Lineup:
C Garver
SS Polanco
DH Cruz
RF Rosario
3B Sano
1B Gonzalez
LF Arraez
2B Schoop
CF LaMarre
Busy day at work, so I don't have time to say a lot. That's okay since no one reads these things anyway. Let's hit some dingers and hack away at that magic number!
Twins back battling the White Sox in the first game of a three game series. This was supposed to be the middle of the "easy" part of the schedule but the White Sox have been playing well lately and are now on track to lose less than 90 games this season. Lucas Giolito on the mound for the Sox and he has been anything but easy. 1.09 WHIP, 11.5 so/9 innings, batters with an OPS of .636 against Giolito this year. Plus he was just dominate against the Twins last week; they had no chance in Giolito's 3-hit, 9 shutout inning performance. Hopefully with some familiarity the Twins can get something going tonight. Pineda up for the Twins and you just never know with this guy. Fortunately the bullpen appears to be well rested.
Should be a gorgeous night for baseball tonight on the Southside. First pitch at 7:10p Cleveland plays Detroit this week so a good effort is needed to keep the hammer down on those dreaded Spiders.
The Twins come back home after a 5-1 road trip, most recently off their first four game sweep in Texas. While the road treated them well, the home stadium has been less inviting as of late; the Twins have dropped 5 out of their last 6 at Target Field.
Coming into town are the White Sox, who just lost 3 out of 4 in Anaheim. Crossing fingers for the Twins to extend the B-Sox's recent road woes. Hopefully Good Gibby will face off against Ivan Nova, who's been white hot lately (ba dum tss!).
Apparently battling the White Sox is easier than battling the Yankees or A's, or... any good team, really. Apparently pitching Jose Berrios helps too.
Tonight Big Mike gets to keep the train rolling, and, more to the point, hopefully the batters do their part against Dylan Cease in his 4th big league start. So far he's faced the Tigers, Royals, and Tampa, none of whom are quite known for their offense in the same way, so... this should be a good test for the kid. Of course, these new guys often present their own kind of challenge, so hopefully the Twins can solve him early and thoroughly.
A few more HRs would be nice too. We haven't passed a previous year's HR total in almost 24 hours.
Also, I adore that the White Sox have a downward facing arrow in their signage. Someone really wasn't thinking there, were they?
Berrios
-vs-
Giolito
Minnesota & Chicago have identical 3-7 records over their past 10 games and both have lost two in a row. The difference being, the Twins faced the Yankees, Athletics, Mets (derp) and Cleveland while Chicago managed that against the Marlins, Rays and Royals. On the season, Minnesota has scored 576 runs and given up 468 for a run differential of +108. The White Sox have plated 418 and given up 514 runs for a differential of -96.
So ... you're thinking this should be a bounce back game series after the heartbreaker on Tuesday and non-competitive start last night? We'll see - 24-year-old Chicago Ace and former 1st rounder Lucas Giolito has seemingly "figured it out" over 19 starts this year to the tune of 3.14 ERA, 1.092 WHIP, 134 K's in 112.2 innings pitched. He's leading his team in WAR at 3.8 (a full 'Win' ahead of their #2 player, catcher James McCann). All that said, 3 of his 4 losses have come in his past four starts (though the lone 'W' in there was against the Twins on June 30).
After watching Twins starters struggle mightily over the past 10 games (only Gibson secured a starter 'W'), it'd be nice to see José Berríos get the group back on more solid ground. Unfortunately, Berríos hasn't won a start since June 6 (1-3 w/ 4 no decisions) though he has had some nice games where the Ass Bats© did him no favors - he's had 5 or more runs of support only three times in that span. We can only hope that the seemingly awakened Bomba Squad continues to hit; José - and the club - could use a laugher.
52-28. That's where the Twins are today. And they're either going to be 52-29 or 53-28 after the first half of games. I'm struggling to find their best first half ever, but this has to be somewhere towards the top, right? Anyway, good for them. And for us.
After a loooong loss yesterday, I think there's some concern about how the Twins will bounce back. A weekend trip to Chicago hopefully serves as the refresher. Berrios on the mound should help. It'll be hot this weekend, and hopefully the bats take a hint from the weather.
Anyway, it's my youngest's birthday today, so I'd better go finish up her cake (inspired by one of Jeff A's cake pictures here on the site - the rainbow one). Let's hope the Twins can deliver a birthday present for her!
