It’s overcast and a bit dreary at Target Field, but it’s not raining so the Minnesota Twins are hitting on the field in preparation for game three against the New York Yankees. The Twins need wins on Saturday and Sunday to salvage a split, and first and foremost snap a seven-game losing skid at the hands of the Yankees that dates back to last summer.
There was a familiar face in the clubhouse Saturday morning, as Tommy Milone rejoined the team overnight after they sent Pat Dean back to Triple-A. Dean’s ERA had swollen to 5.54 after his rough start against the Yankees Friday night — seven earned while recording just seven outs — so the Twins made the move to re-add Milone to the 40-man roster, as he took the spot vacated by DFA’d outfielder Oswaldo Arcia.
Milone echoed what Paul Molitor said Friday night, as he will be available out of the bullpen for the rest of the weekend before making a start on Thursday or Friday. Milone was slated to start for Rochester on Sunday, and had put together a really nice season since being outrighted there. Milone had a 1.66 ERA with 41 strikeouts and just four walks with the Red Wings, and will have at least some opportunity to improve on his season numbers with the Twins (5.79 ERA, 1.41 WHIP and 7.3 K/9).
On a semi-related note, Jose Berrios started for Rochester on Friday, tossing six solid innings against Toledo in a loss with seven strikeouts and just two earned runs. Since returning to Triple-A, Berrios has made six starts, and has a 4.42 ERA, 38-15 K/BB ratio in 36.2 innings and an OPS against of .732. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to suggest that this could have been his opportunity if things were going a little better.
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Here’s how the Twins line up today:
The Twins are facing Michael Pineda (3-7, 5.88) today. Despite Pineda’s iffy-looking numbers, he’s run up the strikeouts (9.9 K/9) and kept the walks at a reasonable number (2.4 BB/9). So why the struggles? Pineda allows just far too much hard contact, as he has a hard-hit rate of 30.2 percent and a medium-hit mark of 53.2 percent. That’s a huge reason why he’s allowed an opponents’ slash line of .302/.349/.527 despite ranking fifth in the AL in strikeout rate. Pineda is about middle of the pack when it comes to hard-hit rate among the 99 qualified MLB starters, but he’s in the top 20 in medium-hit rate, which clearly makes for a poor combination.
It’s very Jekyll and Hyde, because he’s also sixth in swinging strike rate. His slider has an incredible 25.8 percent whiff rate, but even that is inducing an OPS of .648 — much higher than expected for a possibly elite offering. Pineda’s fastball and cutter have been absolutely hammered this season however, as both are allowing an OPS in excess of 1100. All the command in the world doesn’t matter if that’s happening.
Going for the Twins is Ricky Nolasco, who is making his 14th start of the season. Nolasco also has good secondary numbers — 7.9 K/9, 1.6 BB/9 — but has been rather hittable as well, as he’s allowed 87 hits in 77.1 innings for a WHIP of 1.31, which is awfully high considering his walk rate. Opposing batters have hit a healthy .284/.310/.454 against Nolasco this season. He’s been up and down all season with good and bad starts, but is coming off a quality start in a win against the Angels early in the week.
Nolasco held the Halos to three runs on seven hits in six innings with five strikeouts and just one walk, and for the month has a solid 15-2 K/BB ratio. Also encouraging is that Nolasco has gotten double-digit swinging strikes over his last two starts, and is now up to an even 10 percent in swinging-strike rate for the season. That puts him 36th among qualified MLB starters, and in pretty decent company (tied with Julio Teheran, James Shields and Ian Kennedy). There are some pretty good starters who have lower whiff rates, like Aaron Nola, Steven Matz, Chris Sale and Dallas Keuchel.
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Notes & Quotes
- The Twins announced the signings of draft picks Ben Rortvedt (Rd. 2), Jose Miranda (Rd. B), Akil Baddoo (Rd. B), Griffin Jax (Rd. 3), Alex Schick (Rd. 6) and Shane Carrier (Rd. 8).
- Yankees reliever Dellin Betances has 62 strikeouts this season; the only Twins pitcher with more is Nolasco, who has 68 as a starter.
- Joe Mauer can extend his streak of reaching safely to 29 games by doing so Saturday. That would be the third-longest of his career. He reached in 43 straight last season, and in 36 straight back between September 2009 and April 2010.
- The Twins are just 3-15 against AL East teams this season.
- The Twins are 11-7 in games where they out-hit their opponent, and 6-36 otherwise.
- Milone on returning to the Twins: “Obviously this is the level you want to be at, so it’s always good to be back up here.”
- Milone on what he worked on at Rochester: “I think just trying to become myself again. Being aggressive. Throwing everything for strikes.”
- Milone on how quickly he felt good at Rochester: “It seemed pretty much right away. I think it was just a mentality thing. I had to tell myself just to go after hitters, whether it’s Triple-A or whatever it is. I told myself I needed to throw more strikes and get the hitter out of there early. That was my main goal was just attacking hitters.”
- Molitor on Robbie Grossman, who is not in the starting lineup: “In Robbie’s situation, he’s played every game since he’s been up here for the most part. He’s still doing fine; his on-base percentage has been really good. He’s been a top-of-the-lineup guy recently just because of that fact. He’s given us good at-bats. But with Danny (Santana) returning, I’m kind of looking for opportunities to see how I can mix him in to get him on track since his DL stint. Today was a good day for that.”
- Molitor on how Milone will be used: “A couple good starts today and tomorrow might hold him back to where we can just get him into the rotation without having to use him. But if I use him today or tomorrow (out of the bullpen) depending on how the games go, it still gives me an opportunity to start him possibly as early as next Thursday and probably at the latest Friday. I’m going to hold off on those two spots until we see how we use Tommy the next couple days.”
