Greetings from Target Field. It’s cloudy and a bit on the chilly side as the Minnesota Twins (70-63, 1.0 game back for top Wild Card spot) prepare for a three-game series against the visiting Kansas City Royals (65-67, 4.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot). There’s a chance of passing rain showers during the game, but it doesn’t look too worrisome.
It’ll be a pair of veteran righties on the mound, as the Twins send Dillon Gee (3.18 ERA, 3.53 FIP in 22.2 innings with Twins) out to face the Royals against Jason Hammel (4.76 ERA, 4.47 FIP in 149.1 innings). Dillon Gee revenge game, what? Well no, not really…but more on that in a bit.
Joe Nathan officially announced his retirement from baseball, signing a one-day deal to retire as a Twin in an emotional press conference at Target Field with general manager Thad Levine — who was in Texas with the Rangers when Nathan was there from 2012-13 — by his side.
Nathan reminisced about the winds and turns his big league career took. He thanked his family, his agent Dave Pepe and countless people in the Twins organization from Terry Ryan all the way down to Ron Gardenhire and his former teammates — including those in attendance (Joe Mauer, Glen Perkins and Drew Butera).
Nathan said his favorite memory with the Twins was Game 163 at the Metrodome, and that he had great memories at the stadium that was a wonderful, depressing dump. He also said if he could have one pitch back, it would be ball four to Miguel Cairo in Game 2 of the American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium in 2004. Nathan recalled striking out John Olerud, then walking Cairo in front of Derek Jeter before Alex Rodriguez hit a ground-rule double. Two batters later, Hideki Matsui hit a sacrifice fly to right to win the game, and thus began the stretch of postseason play where the Twins simply could not beat the Yankees.
Nathan will have a video tribute, and will throw out the first pitch. It sounds like Mauer will catch it.
Check back later as we’ll have the full video of Joe Nathan’s press conference!
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Here’s how the Twins will line up against Hammel:
Here’s how the Royals will counter:
Gee will get his first look at the Royals this season after spending the 2016 season as a swingman for them. Gee made 33 appearances (14 starts) with the Royals, and had a 4.68 ERA (5.25 FIP) in 125 innings last season before having offseason surgery to repair thoracic outlet syndrome. In Gee’s six appearances with the Twins, he’s allowed more than three earned runs just once — last time out in a loss to the Blue Jays.
Gee’s velocity has returned and then some since surgery, as he’s averaging a career-best 90.9 mph on his four-seam fastball and 90.8 mph on his two-seamer. He’s throwing a lot of cutters this year (21.1 percent) — a pitch he adopted with the Royals — and also has thrown a fair number of changeups and knucklecurves. He’s less of a groundball pitcher than ever before — career-low 38.1 percent — but his slider (14.5 percent), changeup (17 percent) and curve (19.5 percent) are all getting healthy swinging-strike rates. He’s extremely susceptible to the long ball (1.77 per nine) and has been rocked by lefties this season (.312/.391/.541), so keep an eye out for Eric Hosmer, Melky Cabrera, Brandon Moss and Mike Moustakas in this one.
Hammel has been crushed by the Twins this season in three starts, to the tune of a 9.45 ERA, 2.25 WHIP and a batting line of .333/.417/.524. Hammel has really only had one good month this season — a 2.51 ERA in June — but otherwise has seen an ERA at or above 4.75 in every other month. August was one of Hammel’s better months, but still resulted in a 4.80 ERA, 6.9 strikeouts per nine and a WHIP of 1.10.
Despite the drastically different numbers, this year (4.47 FIP) isn’t all that much different for Hammel than last season (4.48). The strikeouts, walks and home run numbers are all also close, but he’s allowing 9.5 hits per nine this year as opposed to 8.0 last year. That’s a fairly significant difference, though opposing batters are hitting .266/.318/.422 this year against Hammel after hitting an almost identical .239/.307/.423 last year. In short, he’s allowing more hits but similar damage.
Hammel has a reverse split this season, as lefties have just a .716 OPS against him while righties are at .766, and he’s been much worse on the road (4.92 ERA, .799 OPS against) than at home (4.64, .693). Ultimately, he’s a gritty veteran who knows how to pitch, but it’s not hard to like the Twins’ chances against him, even without the benefit of Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton.
Goodrum Gets the Call
Utility man Niko Goodrum was promoted in the first wave of September call-ups, but unlike Nik Turley and Buddy Boshers, he was not on the 40-man and will be making his big-league debut whenever he gets into the game. We had a full breakdown on Goodrum earlier in the day on Friday, but he said he’s extremely excited to take on whatever role the Twins give him, and his parents are already in the Twin Cities to celebrate the moment with him.
LISTEN: Brandon joins Mitch Widmeier on Friday afternoon to talk Twins on KATE 1450 in Albert Lea
Goodrum has played every position but catcher and pitcher for Rochester this season, but figures to get most of his time with the Twins in the corners and against left-handed pitching.
Twins at the State Fair
Ervin Santana, Jorge Polanco, Eduardo Escobar and Bartolo Colon went out to the Minnesota State Fair on Friday, and Fox Sports North captured some really fun footage:
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Notes
- The Twins finished August with 20 wins — their first 20-win month since going 20-7 in May 2015.
- A hot end to the month allowed the Twins to finish second in team wRC+ in August (121). Only the Baltimore Orioles (131) were better.
- The Twins were fourth, fifth and second in the triple-slash categories (BA/OBP/SLG) in the month of August.
- The Twins hit 50 home runs in August — a mark exceeded only by the Orioles (57).
- The Twins pitching staff had a 3.78 ERA in August — seventh in MLB. They were 13th in strikeouts and first in fewest walks.
- Twins starters were 10th in ERA in August (3.96). Relievers were seventh (3.46)
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