Twins' Difficult Schedule
Of the Twins' first 25 games (eight series), the will play just 6 games against teams who finished last year below .500. They start with the terrible Orioles and play the on-the-rise Royals at the end of April. Their other 19 games aren't just against good teams, they're against the best teams in the AL. Here's how it looks:
- vs. Angels - 3 games from April 9-12.
- vs. Rangers - 3 games from April 13-15.
- @ Yankees - 4 games from April 16-19.
- @ Rays - 3 games from April 20-22.
- vs. Red Sox - 3 games from April 23-25.
- @ Angels - 3 games from April 30-May 1.
These five teams averaged 92 wins between them last year even with the now much improved Angels winning just 86 games.
Yikes. We'll definitely get a sense of what this team can do after this gauntlet. The silver lining in all of this is that Minnesota is getting all the hard games out of the way early while their hitters are still healthy (fingers crossed).
Either this will be an ugly first month or a pleasant start to a surprise season for the Twins.