Twins Notebook 9/6: Keep Climbing!

[Cooper Carlson]

The Twins will look to win their sixth straight game just a week after losing six straight games. Baseball is super weird and that's why we love it! 40 year old Rich Hill will take on rookie Casey Mize in game four of the series.Saturday’s game recap:

MIN 4, DET 3: Fashionably Late

 

TODAY

 

Tigers @ Twins, 1:10 pm CDT

 

Twins Starter: Rich Hill, LHP 3.94 ERA

 

Download attachment: hill.png

 

Rich Hill will take the mound for the Twins in what will be a very big game for him. Hill will obviously want to be a starter in the playoffs and for that to happen he consistently needs to go at least five innings.In two of his last three starts he was unable to even get out of the fourth inning and he was noticeably frustrated his last time out, dropping a few bad words and kicking everything in sight.

 

Hill has not faced the Tigers this season and this will be the easiest lineup he has faced all season. In four games Rich Hill has pitched against the White Sox, Indians, Cardinals, and Brewers. Not the easiest schedule. One week ago today, Matthew Trueblood of TwinsDaily wrote about how Rich Hill’s new cutter could be a game changer. Perhaps today we will see that new improvement from him on the mound.

 

Tigers Starter: Casey Mize, RHP 7.04 ERA

 

Download attachment: mize.png

 

Remember Mize? He pitched against the Twins *checks notes* like a week ago. Mize will face the Twins in consecutive starts and the Twins will need to do a much better job this time around if they want the win. Last time out Mize didn’t do anything special, going just three innings and giving up two, but the Twins were shut down all game.

 

Mize has not been great to open his major league career as he has failed to go five innings in each of his three starts so far. The ERA is up and hitters are crushing the ball. It’s time for the Twins to join in.

 

Twins Lineup

 

 

News & Notes:

 

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-The AL Central division is the only one with at least two teams with a .600 win% of better. What makes it even weird is that the division has three teams over that win%.

 

-Last night Gerrit Cole lost his third straight start, the Yankees lost for the 12th time in their last 17 games, they have the second worst record in the American League since August 18, and they dropped to 14-18 when they don’t play the last place Red Sox.

 

-Speaking of teams no one likes, the Astros managed to get swept by the Angels in a double header yesterday. The Angels are not a good baseball team and the Astros certainly are. You love to see it.

 

AROUND THE AL CENTRAL

 

-Indians 4, Brewers 3

-White Sox 5, Royals 3

 

1. CWS 25-15 (-)

2. CLE 24-15 (0.5 GB)

3. MIN 25-16 (0.5 GB

4. DET 17-20 (6.5 GB)

5. KCR 14-26 (11.0 GB)

 

See Also:

 

Brent Rooker Makes MLB Debut

Third Time’s a Harm???

The September Jolt We Forgot We Needed

The Twins’ 5 Most Effective Pitches

 

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[PDX Twin]

The strong record of the AC Central must be reflected by a poor record of the NL Central, since those are the only outside teams that our division is playing. (And of course, except against the Twins, KC and Detroit are poor, so the wins within the division are not spread out evenly.)

[rdehring]

Should we be so fortunate as to win the division, we may look back at the second game Friday together with yesterday's game as the point in the season where it happened. These two wins are just plain HUGE!

[mikelink45]

With Pittsburgh, KC, and Detroit making up the majority of our games we have to keep from getting complacent.  I still want more bats working - Rosario needs to get going, Rooker needs to keep playing ahead of Cave, Kiriloff should be here, but I can only feel frustrated by that.  

 

Hill needs to step up, but Mize might be ready to as well.   We have only scored 12 runs in four games since the 88 run victory over the White Sox.   And we scored 22 runs before that game in an 8 game stretch.  

 

I am excited by the bat control Sano is showing, but the bottom of the order needs to do more and someone from St Paul should be batting for Adrianza.  I am also pleased to have Astudillo instead of Avila. 

[Danchat]

I saw Cleveland walked off Josh Hader in the 9th and got what I think were the first two hits he’s given up all season. Impressive!