Bailey Ober
vs
Tanner Bibee
Twins should be up 2-0 this series but at least they have not fully collapsed and are at 1-1.
In non-pitching news, Buxton played his 94th game yesterday, the highest total since 2017's 140 (!!?) games. In his 94 games, he's accumulated 3.4 fWAR. Getting to 120 games next year could put him at a 4+ fWAR season.
Saturday game, in progress
Gavin Williams
vs
Simeon Woods Richardson
Sunday
Tanner Bibee
vs
David Festa
Buckle up, citizens, it's going to be a long ride. The Twins come north to tee off their 2024 home season today against Cleveland sporting a 3-2 record but losing Royce Lewis to injury. Looks like he'll be out at least a month or more with his quad strain. It's always hard to say how the season will turn out this early, impossible really, and spring training is a poor prognosticator, but I've seen a few encouraging things so far. Except for that Easter shellacking from KC, we've look pretty good. Correa appears to be back to full health, his Willie Mays catch running toward the left field wall yesterday gives us a glimpse of what we'd hoped for last year. Again, with the exception of Baily Ober the starting pitching has been solid. And I'll give a shoutout to Griffin Jax out of the bullpen, who took a bit of abuse from me last year. His stuff is wicked, and it looks like he got some bulldog injections over the winter. And hey, how good is it to see Byron Buxton patrolling centerfield?
The starting rotation starts its second cycle today with Pablo Lopez on the hill for the Twins, the Guardians counter with Tanner Bibee. In 26 starts last year he pitched to a 3.08 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP with 145 strikeouts. He did not figure in the decision in his first start. So that's it, I have to get dressed for the game and off to the ballpark.
Oh, one other thing. Scheduling the Twins at Brewers series for the first week of April is about as stupid as it gets. MLB must leave a lot of money on the table with its crappy scheduling algorithm.
PLAY BALL!
Tanner Bibee
vs
Sonny Gray
Day game alert!
Final game of an almost 12-game homestand. A loss today guarantees the Twins pick ahead of the Giants on the waiver wire. The Diamondbacks play the Dodgers tonight so not counting on them winning that. I'd still prefer a win to keep the Guardians well behind in the standings and make the division look a tiny bit less sad.
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.
Play ball!
