Minnesota Twins series preview: Twins need to take advantage against White Sox
The Minnesota Twins will host the Chicago White Sox this week, beginning a two-week stretch where they’ll face the bottom of the AL Central.
The Minnesota Twins have navigated through the toughest part of their schedule in the past couple of months. While having to play some of the better teams in baseball and some foreign competition from the National League, the Twins have slumped back toward the Cleveland Indians in the American League Central after holding an 11 1/2 game lead in early June.
While the Twins play has dropped off in some areas, one key way that the Indians forced their way back into the division race was by beating up on the lesser teams within their division. Since facing that massive deficit on June 2, the Indians have played 23 of their past 64 games against the Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals.
Those three teams make up the bottom half of the AL Central and the Indians have played them accordingly, posting a 20-3 record in those games. That helped fuel Cleveland’s charge to meet and even take the lead from the Twins, but their schedule gets much harder down the stretch.
Just like the Indians had the opportunity to catch up to the Twins thanks to those games, the Twins will have the same chance over the next two weeks beginning with Monday’s opener with the White Sox. With alternating series with Chicago and the Tigers over that time frame, the Twins have a chance to blow the central division wide open as they head into the final month of the season.
Monday: 7:10 p.m. CT
Kyle Gibson (12-4, 4.28 ERA) vs. Ivan Nova (8-9, 4.51 ERA)
It will be Kyle Gibson‘s turn to battle as he takes the mound for Monday’s opener with the White Sox. Gibson has put together a strong win-loss record of 12-4 this season, but his ERA has started to climb in recent outings with a 4.28 ERA. The veteran has also had issues throwing strikes with 11 walks over his past three starts. Although he has struggled, he’s had success against Chicago this season allowing one run in six innings of work with nine strikeouts on July 28.
His opponent will be Ivan Nova, who has turned things around significantly since the All-Star break. In seven starts, the right-hander has gone 4-2 with a 2.27 ERA while also fixing his control issues that plagued him at the start of the season. The Twins have seen this first hand as Nova tossed six innings allowing just one run in a win over Minnesota on July 27.
While Nova is a different pitcher, that may not matter to Nelson Cruz. The veteran should come off the injured list for this series (or very soon after) and has crushed a pair of bombs off of Nova with a .313 average and three RBI in his career. Jonathan Schoop has also seen success against Nova with a pair of home runs and three RBI, but has also struck out five times in 18 at-bats.
Tuesday 7:10 p.m. CT
Michael Pineda (8-5, 4.20 ERA) vs. Reynaldo Lopez (8-5, 4.20 ERA)
The Twins have had issues with their starting pitching lately, but Michael Pineda has not been part of that problem. Although he’s had issues with his help, Pineda has posted a 4-2 with a 3.14 ERA in his last 11 starts. The Twins are 8-3 in those games and his consistency has been there throughout the season allowing three or fewer runs in 15 of his past 16 starts.
Reynaldo Lopez has been terrific for the White Sox, but his last start against the Los Angeles Angels didn’t follow that pattern. After posting a 2.13 ERA in his previous six starts, the right-hander allowed five runs in 5 1/3 innings against the Halos. Lopez had similar results in his previous start against the Twins as Minnesota tagged him for eight runs in 3 2/3 innings in a win on May 24.
Outside of that start, the Twins haven’t had too much success against Lopez in his career as he’s allowed 10 earned runs in 26 2/3 innings against Minnesota. Meanwhile, Chicago’s Ryan Goins has had great success against Pineda, going 6-for-14 (.429) with three doubles and an RBI lifetime.
Wednesday: 12:10 p.m. CT
Jake Odorizzi (13-5, 3.50 ERA) vs. Lucas Giolito (13-6, 3.41 ERA)
The panic that set in against Jake Odorizzi has calmed down in his past couple of starts, which is a great thing after his rough month of July that saw him post a 7.43 ERA and allow six home runs. The month of August has been a different story as he hasn’t gone deep into games, but has posted a 2.08 ERA in 17 1/3 innings. In his previous start against the White Sox this year, Odorizzi got the win with 5 1/3 scoreless innings that included nine strikeouts.
The Twins will face Lucas Giolito, who is enjoying a breakout season in 2019. Although his 13-6 record and 3.41 look good, he’s had mixed results against the Twins this season. On June 30, Giolito threw five shutout innings before being pulled due to a rain delay, but got rocked for seven earned runs in five innings on July 25.
One batter who will be glad to see Giolito is Cruz as he had his first career three-homer game against Giolito in the July 25 victory.
Outlook
The Twins will need to have a great stretch over the next two weeks in order to get their cushion back in the American League Central. Although they come into this series with a 2 1/2 game lead, this was the part of the schedule the Indians used to come back from the dead.
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If the Twins are unable to take advantage of the White Sox, it could make the final weeks of the season even more intense as they push for a playoff spot. With the Twins having the advantage in two of the three games, they should be able to at least win the series and have a shot at a sweep.