Well, the inevitable has happened, when the Minnesota Twins open their series with the Cleveland Indians Jose Berrios will take over the rotation spot once filled by the struggling Tyler Duffey.
Following two straight starts where he allowed five runs or more and lasted less than three innings, it became abundantly clear Duffey’s days in the rotation were numbered.
Berrios will take his 10-5 Triple-A record and try to make this trip to the Major League level stick.
Duffey, who should still get a shot at the rotation in the future, will move to the bullpen
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In four starts during an earlier call-up, Berrios posted a 10.20 ERA. Those numbers ballooned due to Berrios’ final start where he allowed seven earned runs against the Detroit Tigers.
Prior to that, Berrios had started to look like he was finding his rhythm.
But now he’ll face a brand new test in the form of the first-place Cleveland Indians who – if it weren’t for the vetoed trade of Jonathan Lucroy – could have been viewed as an even bigger World Series threat.
Berrios (1-1, 10.20) will face Danny Salazar (11-3, 2.97) in what could be the beginning of an electric divisional pitching rivalry for years to come.
Here are the pitching matchups for the four-game series:
Jose Berrios (1-1, 10.20) vs. Danny Salazar (11-3, 2.97)
Kyle Gibson (3-6, 4.54) vs. Carlos Carrasco (7-4, 2.45)
Ricky Nolasco (4-8, 5.13) vs. Trevor Bauer (7-4, 3.64)
Tommy Milone (3-3, 5.13) vs. Josh Tomlin (11-3, 3.43)
In terms of pitching, the Minnesota Twins have actually gotten decent starts from their staff over the course of the past month.
This led to their first winning month since May of last year.
They’ll face a very tough challenge as seen by those numbers from the four pitchers they’ll see.
Add to that the Twins won’t face former Cy Young winner Corey Kluber who has posted a 10-8 record with a 3.27 ERA.
The offense will be led by Brian Dozier who has been enjoying the best season of his career, even surpassing last year’s.
After such a slow start to the season, Dozier has been on fire and continued his hot-hitting ways with a double and a pair of home runs against the Chicago White Sox.
Dozier has actually had some solid success against the Indians this season, hitting .281 with a homer.
Though as seen by last week’s series, the Indians are a much different team than when the Twins played them earlier in the season.
Still, the Minnesota Twins have played first-place teams well this season and have nothing to lose at this point except for the opportunity to ruin some first-place teams’ day.
Again, at this point the Minnesota Twins are playing for pride with a hope that any success can translate to next season.
However, if the Twins want to have any success, they’ll need to start playing better defense.
They committed four errors on Sunday and almost blew the game but were able to overcome those miscues.
On the season, they rank 25th in the league with a fielding percentage of .981 and 72 errors committed.
The Indians are ranked seventh in the league in runs scored with 497 and will no doubt be ready to take advantage of any and all errors the Minnesota Twins make.
Again, at this point the Minnesota Twins are playing for pride with a hope that any success can translate to next season.
Next: Sano, Vargas, Trade Deadline
Being able to prove to yourself that you can play against competing teams will be the first step to continued success.