Twins

7/4 PREGAME NOTES: Gibson vs. Ramirez, Meyer Shipped Out, Dozier on the Mend

Gibson threw six no-hit innings on Saturday. (photo credit: Brian Curski, Cumulus Media)

Greetings and happy Fourth of July from Target Field! It’s overcast and warm as the Twins prepare to take on the Los Angeles Angels in game two of a three-game set. The Twins beat old friend Alex Meyer and the Angels 9-5 on Monday night to open the series and improve to 42-40 on the season.

The Royals also won on Monday night, so the teams remain deadlocked for second place — 2.5 games behind division-leading Cleveland. Also of note: the Angels sent Meyer to Triple-A prior to Tuesday’s game. According to Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times, it’ll likely be an extended demotion. Not only does Los Angeles not need Meyer with the All-Star break looming, but with a number of off days scheduled over the next few weeks, he’ll get some work in down on the farm. Moura tweeted that the Angels don’t need a fifth starter again until July 29.

As for Tuesday’s game, it’ll be righty Kyle Gibson going for the Twins against J.C. Ramirez for the Angels. More on that in a second.

Brian Dozier remains out of the lineup for a second straight day with back soreness. Dozier texted manager Paul Molitor Tuesday morning to say that he could play, but the skipper wanted to err on the side of caution with such a quick turnaround from Monday, when he could barely swing at all. The expectation is that Dozier will return to the lineup in a full capacity in Wednesday’s series finale.

Dozier is available off the bench, he said.

As a brief injury update, Molitor also said that left-handed pitcher Glen Perkins is still just playing catch as he works back from biceps tendinitis which has waylaid his comeback from shoulder surgery. He remains without a timeline.

Here’s how the Twins will line up against the Angels:

Here’s how the Angels will counter:

Gibson still sports an unsightly 6.11 ERA, but has at least been better since coming back from Triple-A Rochester than he was before. That’s not exactly a rousing endorsement, as the tall righty had an 8.20 ERA before he was shipped out. Since returning, he’s posted a 4.87 mark and has still allowed opposing batters to hit .301/.374/.517 against him in 44.1 innings with 30 strikeouts and 21 walks. Oddly enough, he’s throwing fewer strikes now (59 percent) than before (61 percent), and is still at 9 percent for swinging strike rate — identical to his pre-demotion numbers.

His last three starts have produced a decent ERA (3.86), but even that is shrouded in a .936 OPS against and 7-8 K/BB ratio over 16.1 innings. He’s allowed just seven earned runs in that stretch, but also five home runs. To say his pitching is uneven right now is more than fair.

Ramirez is one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in the game — average fastball 95.6 mph via Fangraphs — though he has fallen on tougher times recently (4.60 ERA/4.80 FIP) after a strong start. Ramirez came into June with a 3.38 ERA and left with it having swollen more than a run, as opposing batters hit .302/.359/.581 against him over the month. He posted a 7.04 ERA, allowed nine home runs and had a 28-9 K/BB ratio in 30.2 innings. He’s still got very good stuff (11 percent swinging strike rate) and is still acclimating to the big leagues a bit as a starter — 218.1 career innings since 2013, but this is just his 16th start — so it’ll be interesting to monitor how he handles the Twins today.

They got his month of June off to a rocky start (June 2), as he allowed seven earned runs in just 4.1 innings when he saw them for the first time this season.


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Gibson threw six no-hit innings on Saturday. (photo credit: Brian Curski, Cumulus Media)

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