As the second half of the 2014 Major League Baseball season gets underway, the Minnesota Twins will have the good fortune of kciking off the action in the friendly confines of their home ballpark, Target Field. Wonderfully put on display for the All Star festivities, the Twins will play host to the Tampa Bay Rays.
With both teams looking for a strong start to the second half of their seasons, this is a pivotal matchup for what could set the tone for the rest of the win. For the Rays, the young right hander Alex Cobb will take the mound. He will be opposed by Minnesota’s Kyle Gibson.
Gibson will look to continue to the strong 2014 he has put together, and the Twins will look to score early and often to keep a Rays team that has struggle to find offense, out of the game.
Here is how both teams will lineup for tonight’s game.
Tampa Bay Rays (44-53)
Ben Zobrist LF
Matt Joyce DH
James Loney 1B
Minnesota Twins (44-50)
Brian Dozier 2B
Sam Fuld LF
First Impressions:
- Thanks to recent promotions of Cole Figueroa and Curt Casali, the Rays lineup has some fresh new faces. Not to mention Kevin Kiermaier has been one of the hottest hitting players in baseball the last couple weeks.
- The Twins have dropped Josh Willingham‘s bat below both Kendrys Morales and Oswaldo Arcia now.
- Interesting to see Danny Santana and Sam Fuld both in the outfield. Fuld doesn’t have the typical arm you’d expect from a left fielder, but the Rays will be hard pressed to find a gap on the left side tonight.
- Still no timetable on Joe Mauer‘s return, which is unfortunate considering the way he was hitting prior to injury.
Game Details:
Tonight’s first pitch will be at 7:10 pm cst and the game will be televised on Fox Sports North. It will be back to Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven in the booth, contrary to Joe Buck over the weekend at Target Field. The game can also be heard on the Twins Radio Network.