Twins Notebook 8/17: Twins Look to Take Series Versus Chirping Royals

Andrew Thares · August 17, 2020

Tensions flared at the end of yesterday’s 4-2 Twins win over the Kansas City Royals. Look for that to be a compelling storyline as the Twins look to complete the series victory over the Royals tonight and improve their record to 15-8 before welcoming the Milwaukee Brewers to town tomorrow night.Yesterday’s Game Recap

MIN 4, KCR 2: Pitching, Defense and Overall Execution Shine in Twins Victory

TODAY

Twins vs. Royals, 7:10 pm CDT

Betting Lines: MIN -175, KC +150, O/U: 9.5

Twins Starter: Matt Wisler, RHP 1.80 ERA

With the starting rotation still not back to full strength, Rocco Baldelli will turn to the bullpen once again, to get through nine innings of work. Fortunately, the bullpen is fairly well rested as Taylor Rogers and Sergio Romo should be the only pitchers that will likely not be available to use tonight. Look for either Devin Smeltzer or Lewis Thorpe to get some extended work in the early-to-middle part of this game.

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Matt Wisler has been a surprising bright spot for the Twins bullpen to start the season. In six appearances, Wisler has a 1.80 ERA over 10 innings of work. Wisler has gone more than an inning in five of his six outings this year, which includes 2 and 2/3 innings of work last Tuesday in Milwaukee. Hopefully, he can give the Twins a couple of strong scoreless innings to begin tonight’s ballgame.

Royals Starter: Kris Bubic, LHP 5.40 ERA

For the second day in a row, the Kansas City Royals will be starting a pitcher that they selected in the 2018 MLB Draft, this time around it is former Stanford Cardinal lefty Kris Bubic. Don’t let Bubic’s 5.40 ERA to start the season fool you, he is a quality pitcher. In two seasons in the minors, Bubic has posted a stellar 2.59 ERA with 11.4 K/9 and just 2.9 BB/9.

Bubic will sit 92-94 MPH with his fastball, but can rear back and reach as high as 97 MPH with it. Overall, the pitch is pretty flat, and can be squared up. The pitch to watch out for is Bubic’s changeup, which can be a wipeout pitch to both righties and lefties. Bubic will also mix in the occasional curveball, primarily against left-handed hitters.

Twins Lineup

New & Notes

- The Cincinnati Reds are still waiting on their COVID-19 test results to come back, but they remain hopeful that they can begin their series with the Royals on Tuesday night.

- The Detroit Tigers announced today that they are calling up top prospects Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal and Isaac Paredes to the big-league roster.

- DJ LeMahieu, Ronald Acuna and Bo Bichette were all placed on the 10-day IL on Sunday with varying injuries.

Around the AL Central

Indians 8, Tigers 5

White Sox 7, Cardinals 2

1. MIN 14-8 (+35)

2. CLE 13-9 (+21)

3. CWS 11-11 (-3)

4. DET 9-10 (-12)

5. KC 9-13 (-7)

See Also

Week in Review: 4-2