Good morning from Target Field, where it’s supposed to be sunny and 70 all day.
It’s Kyle Gibson (R, 1-4, 8.62 ERA) vs. Alex Cobb (R, 4-4, 3.82). Cobb has made consecutive starts of at least seven innings, and has given up four or more runs in eight of his 15 starts since returning from Tommy John surgery.
Gibson, obviously, has struggled this season and made two starts in Triple-A Rochester before his last start against the Baltimore Orioles.
He had a 2.92 ERA in those two Triple-A starts, striking out 18 and walking five in 12.1 innings, but gave up seven hits and six earned runs in five innings in Minnesota’s crazy 14-7 win over Baltimore.
“There was good and bad, no question about that,” said Twins manager Paul Molitor.
“We talked about our inability to make a couple plays, and they end up scoring five in the second inning of that game, but he’s accountable for everything from the walk to the 0-2 hit to the three-run homer. So when guys make mistakes, or we don’t quite finish some plays, your pitcher’s job is to try to pick your guys up.
“The good part of that game was he regrouped. He went out there and got a chance to finish on a positive note.”
Molitor noted that the Tampa Bay Rays are a good low-ball hitting team, making this will be a test for Gibson, a sinkerball pitcher:
The Twins counter with Kennys Vargas at DH and Eduardo Escobar at third, meaning that Miguel Sano gets another day off:
“It’s one of those things that I tried to measure whether one day was a good mental recharger for him. He’s been grinding it pretty good, all the way back to Spring Training, and just to back him off for a couple days and his swing’s been off, he’s been pulling off balls and all those type of things,” said Molitor.
“Just to kind of, it was more with the idea of just kind of take the mental stress off of him for a couple days and hopefully he’ll come back ready to go tomorrow.”
Sano is hitting .290/.405/.581 with 11 homers so far this year, but he also has struck out 70 times this year — only Chris Davis of the Orioles has more (71). He has no hits in his last four games (14 at-bats) and has struck out 11 times in that time period.
“He’s doing fine physically,” said Molitor.
“Just been a long stretch forthcoming, you guys kinda know the gig. Being a younger guy, to back somebody off for a couple days, some of other guys might find that over the next six, seven weeks, that that’s the best way try to keep it going.”
Asked if he fights being taken out of the lineup, Molitor says he’d prefer to be in it, but understands the situation.
“A little bit,” he admits when asked if Sano offers any resistance. “I called him this morning, before he even came in, and just told him I was thinking about doing that today, and he was … I think he’d rather play every day, he’s kinda that guy, but he sees that as probably a good thing.”
I’ll be covering today and tomorrow. Feel free to reach out on Twitter @tschreier3.
