There’s nary a cloud in the sky as the Minnesota Twins are preparing for batting practice prior to today’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays. The Twins need a win today to keep chances of salvaging a split in the series alive. They can also keep the Jays from reaching .500 prior to leaving town with a win in the next two games.
Brian Dozier returned to his walk-up music from last year — “GDFR” by Flo Rida — as an attempted to just change it up. He said his old buddies from Mississippi send him new recommendations almost weekly and in general question his music choices, and thus the change. He’ll stick with it for a bit.
Twins PR told me that Robbie Grossman is using “People of the Sun” by Rage Against the Machine as his walk-up music, but it was chosen for him by the team DJ. Grossman doesn’t have a preference. Darin Mastroianni will also use a little Justin Timberlake when he comes to the plate today. He’s in right field and batting seventh.
And now, onto less important things…..
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Here’s how the Twins line up today:
Pat Dean will get his first big-league start for the Twins, thought it comes in unenviable circumstances for the 26-year-old rookie lefty. The Blue Jays employ a righty-heavy lineup — especially at the top — which will be a big challenge for Dean, who threw 5.1 innings of relief against the Detroit Tigers after Jose Berrios couldn’t make it out of the first. Dean allowed just two earned runs — including a home run to Nick Castellanos — and kept the team in the game as as the eight-run comeback ultimately fell short, but he also gave up 10 hits. That’s got to be a little worrisome.
Between Triple-A and the Twins this year, right-handed hitters have gotten to Dean a little bit. They’ve hit .270/.308/.399. Dean has allowed 15 extra-base hits this year — 14 have come to righties.
Opposing Dean is fellow lefty J.A. Happ, who is on his second tour of duty with the Jays after signing a three-year, $36 million deal in the offseason. The Jays traded for Happ — who was with the Astros at the time — on July 20, 2012 and sent him to the Mariners two and a half years later for current starting left fielder Michael Saunders.
Happ is kind of a tough nut to crack. He’s never been much of a groundball pitcher but has at times relied on the strikeout. That hasn’t been the case as much this year (5.7 K/9), but he’s still done a fine job for the Jays (3.40 ERA). Happ was so-so for the Mariners last year when they shipped him to the Pirates for the last half of the season. There Happ worked with legendary pitching coach Ray Searage, and for 11 starts down the stretch he pitched like an ace, ultimately securing the multi-year deal from the Jays. Happ had a 1.85 ERA and more than a strikeout per inning in that stretch, and relied heavily on his fastball and slider while cutting the usage on his changeup and curve. He’s been throwing a lot of two-seamers so far this year — a career-high 22.8 percent of the time — so that’ll be something to watch. It might be why his groundball rate is near a career-best rate at 43.1 percent.
How’s this for dominant? Happ has been very tough on left-handed hitters this year. As in, they’re hitting just .237/.333/.237 against him in 45 plate appearances. That’s right, he hasn’t allowed an extra-base hit to a lefty yet this year.
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Notes and Quotes
- The Twins have been swept in nearly as many series’ (eight) as they have overall wins this season (10).
- Byung Ho Park is back in the lineup for the Twins. He leads the AL rookie contingent in home runs, slugging percentage and extra-base hits. He’s also tied for the lead in walks with 11.
- Today’s is Kent Hrbek’s 56th birthday.
- Kurt Suzuki’s next hit will be No. 1,000 for his career.
- On this day in 1999, the Twins traded closer Rick Aguilera to the Cubs in a deal that returned, among others, starter Kyle Lohse. Lohse recently signed with the Texas Rangers, and is at Triple-A Round Rock working his way back to the big league roster.
- Joe Mauer is off today. He’s played in all 41 games so far this season (39 starts).
- Molitor on Dean’s first start: “It’s got to be an exciting day even though he’s had a couple of outings for us since his call up. His outing in Detroit was solid. He kept us in a game that was potentially going to be a blowout. Given our circumstances and people who’ve been out, it works out to get him an opportunity today. It’s a little daunting facing a club that swings the bat the way they do, but we’re just trying to emphasize with him to trust what he does, and use his ability to hits spots and use all his pitches. Hopefully he responds today. It’s a great opportunity for him.”
- Molitor on how the Jays are a tough lineup to face: “When you see it firsthand it’s always impressive. They have a philosophy over there — at least apparent to me — that they’re not worried about striking out or just trying to get a base hit. They look for pitches that they can do major damage on. They’re very free swinging and aggressive. Sometimes you can work that against them if you can execute pitches. From top to bottom they have guys who can hit the ball out of the ballpark. Hopefully we can slow them down today.”
- Molitor added that he’s not too worried about pitch count with Dean, who has worked as a starter at Rochester and threw 91 pitches against the Tigers in relief of Berrios on May 16.
- Molitor on preparing to face Pat Venditte: “It’s a unique thing. You don’t see an ambidextrous guy out there too often at this level. All you can do is prepare like anyone else. It’s almost like you’re preparing for two guys. Give the guy credit. He’s been around for a little bit and found his way back to the big leagues.”
- Dean on preparing to face the Jays: “Knowing that these are a bunch of veteran guys, for me it’s just trying to stick to my gameplan and doing the things that I know I’m good at, and have gotten me to this point. Not trying to overthink things and trying to do too much, I think is going to be big for me. Just trying to stay within myself and take it one pitch at a time.”
- Dean on if there’s a benefit to facing the Jays at home: “Either way I’m going to have some good juices flowing. Getting myself nice and excited. It’s always nice to be pitching at home and have the home crowd behind you, so I guess that’ll be a big help.”
- Dean on facing a righty-heavy Jays lineup: “It’s just going to be me going out and doing my thing whether it’s against a lefty or righty. I still need to go out there and execute pitches and try work ahead. That’s the biggest thing; getting ahead of these guys and trying to make them chase my pitches.”
