Greetings from Target Field, where it’s 48 and overcast and likely will be that way all day. Rain isn’t expected until 9:00 pm tonight, and given that it’s a straight doubleheader — meaning Game 2 will start 30 minutes after Game 1 — things shouldn’t go that late.
My God have mercy on our souls if it does.
The weather has created a bit of a mad scramble for the Twins. This is already the second doubleheader this week — the one against the Colorado Rockies was of the split variety on Thursday — and rain is expected in Baltimore in the next series.
“It’s been challenging, there’s no doubt about that,” said Molitor. “There’s always that risk, especially when you’re in a more northern climate.
“You just have to adapt the best that you can, it’s not time for self-pity or any of those types of things, it’s just finding a way to use your whole roster to try to spread out the workload, and get your players in the right frame of mind to go out there and try to understand you have a chance to compete today twice, and hopefully you find a way to have a productive day.”
He will try to capitalize on the momentum from Friday’s come from behind win, but that seems like a long time ago now.
“I think, man, in the last two-plus years here we’ve talked about momentum quite a bit, and it’s not a tangible thing, so you’re never sure quite how it’s gonna play out. Would it have been nice to come back yesterday and play after that come from behind win? Sure, it would have,” he said.
“You just hope the players have a good feel about how we’re competing. We’re winning games in different fashions — losing them too — but the starting pitcher, a key hit off the bench, baserunning, defense, it gives you a chance every day to go out there and try to find a way to win.”
Phil Hughes (R, 4-2, 5.23 ERA) will face off against Jake Junis (R, 1-0, 0.00) in the first game. Mejia (L, 0-1, 5.79) will take on Ian Kennedy (R, 0-3, 3.03). Junis is making his first major league start.
Molitor on Hughes: “Being himself should be good enough to protect our team a little bit, and hopefully give us a chance to win. We have a tendency to have the rope a little longer, knowing that you still have another game.”
Molitor on Mejia: “Adalberto, he had a really nice spring, and he found his way into the rotation. Not untypically, a young guy that maybe tried to do a little bit too much as the season started to maybe support and affirm the decision that we made to get him in there.
“And he’s gone down there and tried to do a better job of trusting his stuff in the zone. We know he can throw it over, it’s just a matter of him not trying to throw too hard, and just focus on fastball command and getting ahead, and then he can use his change and breaking pitch.”
Protecting Sano
Max Kepler and Kennys Vargas will be hitting behind Sano today:
“Each day it looks a little bit different, I can bump Miggy down in that four-hole fairly easily on a given day, and again, we’ve talked about it. As Miggy’s start has been as solid as it has, to protect him the best way that you can each and every day is part of what we need to try to do,” Molitor said on protecting Sano.
“You can see change a little bit here and there, whether it’s Kep or Joe or Kenny or against left-handed pitching it might even be someone else, so it’s just one of the key parts of your lineup, obviously, and you try to put the right people in there when you can.”
Hunter calling the game
Torii Hunter will be with Dick Bremer in the booth today. He’s supposed to do both games.
“He’s got Torii for two games today?” Molitor asked FSN’s Kevin Gorg. “Depends on what happens in the first game,” Bremer responded before Gorg could.
“His name brings a smile,” said Molitor. “I was fortunate to be around him as a teammate, and just having the personal friendship that we do. To manage him a couple years ago was just a tremendous experience.
“He, no question, made my first go-around a lot easier, just be the presence he had in not only how he played the game, but certainly had an influence on some of our younger guys.”
I’ll be covering both games today. Follow me @tschreier3. Also, feel free to bug new daddy Brandon Warne (@Brandon_Warne) and tell him to do some damn coverage every once in a while.
