Greetings from Target Field, where the Minnesota Twins are looking for their third win in a row and after beating the Philadelphia Phillies yesterday.
No Byung-ho Park today after he was pinch-hit for in the eighth inning of yesterday’s game.
“We’ve been pretty open with dialogue about how things have been going, and he’s been made to understand we’re kinda back to looking for good matchups on a day-to-day basis,” said Minnesota Twins manager Paul Molitor.
In regards to replacing him with Eduardo Escobar in the eighth inning yesterday, Molitor said: “Last night after their eighth inning, it was just kinda one of those situations where I tried to make a decision as to who had the best chance to get a hit.
“I didn’t need a homer, I didn’t need … I just needed a hit, and I went with Esco,” he added. “Today, lefties have been tough for him, and a good chance he’ll be back in there tomorrow. But today I wanted to get Escobar in there hitting from the right side.”
Here’s today’s lineup:
It’s Kyle Gibson (0-5, 6.06 ERA) vs. Adam Morgan (1-6, 6.49). Gibson is making his third start since coming off the disabled list, and Molitor feels that he can build off of his 6.1 inning outing he had against the New York Yankees last time out where he gave up six hits and three earned runs.
“For me what jumped out was a little bit more of an attack mode early in the game,” he said.
“He was more economical with the pitches that he threw. He got a little bit more trying to make that perfect pitch as the game went on, but the first four or five innings in particular, I think he really used his fastball well; pitched from ahead.
“It was a good outing for him. The game didn’t end great, but I think it’s something that he can build on.”
Hot bats
The Twins have a handful of guys that are hitting well right now.
Brian Dozier has bounced back and has seven hits in his last 12 at-bats and his hitting .342 in 19 games this month. Kurt Suzuki has rebounded as well, nearly hitting for the cycle last night, and has hit safely in his last 10 games.
Joe Mauer has been productive, even if his numbers have slipped a bit recently (.279/.378/.406), and Robbie Grossman continues to mash (.290/.432/.540).
“You’d like to think that offensively we have some guys that the mental part of hitting has been freed up a little bit by having a little bit of recent success,” he said.
“But you’re facing a guy that you haven’t faced. You’ve seen the numbers, you know that he gives up some hits, and he can walk some people. Hopefully you do a good job of preparing yourself for the approach you need to take to be successful.”
As far as why some of the veterans, particularly Trevor Plouffe and Dozier, struggled earlier in the season, Molitor said it was a bit of a domino effect.
“It was kind of a collective swoon. We just had trouble pitching, we had trouble scoring, particularly those first 10 games when we got off to the horrific start, our offense was problematic,” he said.
“I think guys have just been swimming upstream, trying to find their way back. You see numbers on the board, it’s hard to not be cognizant of a year in which maybe you are personally struggling. You just try to hope that by staying the course and doing your work, that you start to put together a game here, a couple games here, and next thing you know it’s a week or two weeks — for Dozier it’s been most of this month.
“These guys that have track records, you would think it’s just a matter of time before they start doing things a little bit more consistently. And in some of these examples, that’s what’s happening.”
Plans for Sano?
Things are still up in the air for Sano in terms of where he’ll play, but he is supposed to leave the Twin Cities tomorrow and be in uniform in Triple-A Rochester on Friday.
“We’re gonna try to get his bat going as best we can, get him some at-bats down there — I don’t think we’re gonna have a magic number in mind, whether it’s 15, 20, see how he does,” said Molitor.
“Positionally, we’re gonna see how he does. Probably DH originally and then move him around. I would think that he’s probably gonna see more than one role down there, and then we’ll see how it plays out.”
As far as if he’ll be in the outfield, nothing has changed since yesterday.
“That’s one of those things that time’s gonna tell. We have … not too dissimilar from this winter, it’s kind of how all the pieces fit together, and what you’re willing to do to try to get certain people at-bats,” said Molitor.
“Things can change by the time he gets back. We’re still talking about a week, if not 10 days, so we’ll see how things play out throughout that time.”
The pitching puzzle
Ricky Nolasco will pitch tomorrow, then recently called-up Tommy Milone, who owns a 5.79 ERA (74 ERA+) in the majors, and a 1.66 ERA in Triple-A.
“It was just, um, Tommy being recalled here, he’ll be out in the bullpen for a couple days. I like how Ricky’s throwing the ball, and just wanted to try and keep him on his regular rest,” said Molitor.
“For Tommy to throw in the bullpen on Sunday and again yesterday, it’s gonna be a little bit of a gap until Friday, since his last start, but one day probably wouldn’t influence him as much as I want to keep Ricky on his regular term.”
Ervin Santana will pitch on Saturday, and then Tyler Duffey will get another start on Sunday.
“To be honest, we did have some discussions about how to proceed with his struggles as of late,” said Molitor, “but in the end we decided to put him back out there in New York.”
