Greetings from cloudy, stuffy Target Field as the Minnesota Twins prepare to play game two of the series against the Oakland A’s. The Twins fell 3-1 on Independence Day, in front of a crowd of 23,100 but a local TV crowd of 0 — a point of contention for a number of fans who wished to celebrate July 4 by watching the club.
Nevertheless, the Twins are back on television and slated to play tonight — weather permitting. It’s very, very warm and sticky at the park, and the radar doesn’t look all that promising. The metro is in a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until 11:00 p.m., and Weather.com lists the odds of precipitation as high as 75 percent during the game, peaking around 9:00 p.m.
We’ll see what happens. Twins president Dave St. Peter suggested they’d get the game in via Twitter earlier in the afternoon, but there’s really no incentive for team representatives to say otherwise. That’s not to suggest the team merely wants to benefit from concessions sold before a game is postponed, but rather that there’s no reason for a team to ever be pessimistic about the weather publicly. Saying a game is likely to be canceled drives fans away from the park, including those who have already purchased tickets. If the game is ultimately played, then there’s no recourse for the fans who bought tickets but opted to stay away.
Anyway, that’s just one way to look at it from the standpoint of fans who get upset when team reps say they’re confident the game will happen. Saying the opposite makes no sense, and it isn’t just a money grab.
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Trevor May is back with the club after completing his rehab stint with Triple-A Rochester. May was officially activated following Monday’s game, with lefty Buddy Boshers headed the other way as the corresponding move. May threw 3.2 innings over four appearances with the Red Wings, allowing just a single earned run (2.45 ERA) with six strikeouts and one walk.
May said he was rusty the first time out — when he allowed the only earned run, for what it’s worth — but progressively got better each time out. “The stuff and life on it was really good down there,” May told Cold Omaha on Tuesday. “The command got better each time, too.” May added a mechanical adjustment while on his rehab stint — oddly enough, he said the recommendation came via a subtweet on twitter about his mechanics — and when he and the team checked the tape, it proved true. When May was releasing the ball at his best his hand was higher up than when he was getting around, and it was messing with how his back was contorted during his delivery as well.
May said he wasn’t entirely sure how he’d be used in his return, especially since a number of relievers threw well in the late innings in his absence, but figured he could be an option to get a strikeout if his manager needed one late in the game. Molitor told reporters a little while later that he’d probably try ease May back into the mix with some earlier work — maybe fifth, sixth or even seventh innings — rather than just dropping him into the deep end of the pool right away.
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This is just speculation, but the anticipation around the park appears to be that Eduardo Nunez will be named the team’s lone All Star rep for the game taking place next week in San Diego. Nunez, who is in the midst of his first big league season with a full-time role at age 29, has responded by hitting .315/.341/.479 in 73 games split between second and third base and shortstop. Nunez has 19 steals and 25 extra-base hits, and appears to have the leg up on Brian Dozier or even Kurt Suzuki for an All Star berth. We’ll know more around 6:20 pm when the announcement is expected, if not sooner.
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Here’s how the Twins line up today:
The Twins send lefty Tommy Milone to the mound, who is in search of any sort of positivity. Milone has a 6.23 ERA on the season with the Twins, and things have not been any more smooth this time around after the team outrighted him off the 40-man roster and sent him to Rochester, only to bring him back roughly six weeks later.
Milone has lasted just seven innings total in his two starts since returning, allowing six earned runs (7.71 ERA) while allowing opposing batters to hit a stunning .417/.463/.583. If there’s any positive to be gleaned from his last start, it’s that he induced eight swinging strikes in 78 pitches, which puts him just over the league average rate which is usually right around 10 percent.
Milone isn’t just needing to worry about his own results, either. Jose Berrios has pitched like a man possessed in his last four starts, and is coming off winning last week’s International League Pitcher of the Week award. In his last four starts however, Berrios has a 0.60 ERA (two earned runs in 30 innings) with a 29-7 K/BB ratio and an opponents’ batting line of just .104/.171/.156. He’ll be up one way or another very soon, but it’s worth wondering whose spot he’ll take. For now, it seems Milone is on notice.
Opposing Milone is lefty Sean Manaea, a top pitching prospect who pitched for Indiana State and even faced the Minnesota Golden Gophers at the Metrodome a few years ago. Manaea outdueled fellow lefty Tom Windle (now in Double-A in the Phillies system) on March 15, 2013 as both pitchers tossed complete games in a 2-1 win for the Sycamores. Manaea had nine strikeouts and just one walk as he scattered six hits with no earned runs that day.
That’s not the only time Manaea dominated a Minnesota baseball team. as he tossed six solid innings in his sixth big league start against the Twins back on June 1 in Oakland. Manaea held the Twins to just five hits and one earned run with eight strikeouts as he dropped them to 15-37 for the season. Manaea’s most recent start came against the Giants on June 29, as he held them to just six hits in 5.2 scoreless innings with four strikeouts and a walk in a win.
Manaea’s repertoire is fastball heavy, as he throws a four-seamer 60.5 percent of the time at an average of 92.1 mph — which is pretty good for a lefty. He’ll mix in a changeup the most of his secondary offerings (23.5 percent) and has a slider as well. The expectation is that he’ll develop into a strikeout pitcher, and so far both his slider (21.1 percent whiff rate) and change (19.3 percent) have delivered on that promise. Like any other pitcher he’ll have to stay healthy, but if he does he’ll be a mainstay in the A’s rotation for a long time.
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Notes & Quotes
- The Twins are 0-4 against Oakland so far this season, and have lost six straight games to the A’s dating back to last season.
- Twins relievers have a K/9 rate of 10.5 so far in July — eight-best in MLB. Only three bullpens have a lower ERA this month — small sample size alert! — than the Twins’ 1.50 mark.
- After outrighting Darin Mastroianni and designating reliever Kevin Jepsen for assignment, the Twins are at 38 players on their 40-man roster.
- The Twins announced they have signed 15th-round draft pick Tyler Wells, a right-handed pitcher from Cal State-San Bernardino.
- Milone is facing his old friends in Oakland. Milone racked up 442.2 innings with the A’s over three seasons between 2012 and 2014 before being traded to the Twins for outfielder Sam Fuld.
- Reliever Taylor Rogers has thrown nine straight scoreless innings. His ERA is down to 3.33 for the season, and he’s held left-handed hitters to a .480 OPS this season in the big leagues. Righties, however, have a .955 OPS against him.
- The Twins promoted outfielder Jaylin Davis from from rookie-level Elizabethton to Low-A Cedar Rapids, and ordinarily that wouldn’t be big news. However, Davis hit .277/.346/.745 in just 12 games with the Rookie team with 13 hits. Eight of those hits went for extra bases — one double and seven (!) home runs.
- Manager Paul Molitor on Nunez’ All Star candidacy: “Well, I’m sure a lot will be made about the fact that every team has to be represented. That’ll be a little unfortunate in his case, because I think regardless of where we’re at as a club, I think you can justify his first half as being All-Star caliber. Month to month there hasn’t been much change. We all know he was up there (hitting) around .350 for a while, but he’s been consistent against left-handers and right-handers. He hasn’t had any issue with me bouncing him around from third and short and second occasionally. Since he’s been in the leadoff spot, he’s been a catalyst for us as far as baserunning and getting on base, driving in runs and scoring runs. It’s been enjoyable to see a guy who’s never had a chance to play this regularly take advantage of it and run with it.”
