After laying a big egg in Baltimore to end the first half, the local nine have been playing much better ball since their return from the All-Star break with a sweep of the Athletics and two wins in three games with Seattle. The Twins will try to seal a series win from the Mariners in a businessman's special this afternoon.
The Twins will send Pablo Lopez (5-5, 4.24 ERA, 145 K) to the mound today, Seattle will counter with sophomore right-hander George Kirby (8-8, 3.43 ERA, 93 K). Let's hope the Twins bats make a lot of noise again today, it sure is entertaining to watch when this team is hitting well.
There's nothing like having the game on while mowing for a few hours. The lady of the house is planting the new rose bush, and the kids are golfing around the yard (or, in the case of the one year old, poking the club at the ball and giggling if he happens to make contact). The only thing today needs is some baseball on the radio.....and a good result to that baseball.
Enter Pablo Lopez.
As good as the rotation has been through the first half (and they've arguably been the best in the game), I'd give Lopez the slight edge as the best of them all. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he pitches back to back shutouts. No one has done that since 1884, so that would be fun.
Either way, I'll be listening, first on the mower, then on the deck looking out over my yard, basking in a beautiful day and a Twins win.
March is making his second career MLB start. His first was against the Dodgers and it did not go so well, giving up five runs in four innings. Checking his minor league numbers and while he had decent strikeout (11.4 K/9) and walk (3.9 BB/9) numbers, the ERA was not decent at 5.72 over 245 ⅓ innings, mostly in AA. He's 25 but was drafted in 2019 so lost his first year of MiLB development in 2020. Expect all three true outcomes today as the Twins get a tiny buffer in the "above .500" category.
The Twins are trying to extend a winning streak so modest it's wearing a parka over another parka.
Lopez is the guy to do it if ever there was one. Let's go, Lopez! Let's get this winning streak a little....scandalous. Can we get a dizzying second game over .500?? The mind positively reels.
Twins open a four game series at Target Field against the Red Sox. While the Sox have one more win than the Twins, they play in the AL East, which makes that figure mean something entirely different.
And as Rhu_Ru noted, in yesterday's game, "Gallo, Buxton, Kepler, and Jeffers K'd in all their ABs". So yeah, that's not great! We're getting one of those years where we do things like have a promising road trip then trip onto our faces against lesser teams. I fear this is going to be the type of team we have this year. Again. Rays of sunshine, bracketed by frustration. Uh, play ball!
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.
