It's Time to Make the Boston Red Sox Fear the Sausage

The Twins get only two days off in May, and one of them is Thursday. After that, they begin a stretch of 13 games without a day off. The grind begins with a visit from the Red Sox, who are surprisingly sturdy contenders in the AL East.

Boston hasn’t had an overly difficult season, but they have struggled against teams like the Guardians and the Orioles, which is a dupe for the Twins' struggles as well. They have injuries, but they also have underrated depth from which they have drawn, and right now, their hitting and pitching are red-hot. 

Pitchers Duels
The Red Sox have suffered some injuries in their pitching staff--namely, Brayan Bello, Garrett Whitlock, and Nick Pivetta--but it hasn’t stopped them from getting great starting pitching. Their remaining staff all have a .589 winning percentage. Tanner Houck is having the season of his life right now, pitching to a 1.60 ERA in 39 innings. He may be their most effective starter, but their bullpen is not easy to exploit. To beat this team, the Twins' pitching will need to control the strike zone and the hitters. 

The Twins' pitching staff has been adequate in the past three series, but there are some concerns with the first two starters starting the series. Chris Paddack, set to start Friday, and Pablo López, set to start Saturday, have had some velocity issues in their past starts, which can range from a mere blip to a red flag for injury, The starters will have to set the tone to start the series. 

Luckily, the Twins have had an effective bullpen. They added a fresh arm with Caleb Boushley Wednesday afternoon to replace Cody Funderburk, who was sent back down to Triple-A. Boushley, a 30-year-old minor-leaguer, has been successful, but something else is needed. He certainly will be a candidate to spare some of the more heavily used middle relievers on the staff, giving Rocco Baldelli multiple innings, which will be much needed. Giving Boston a pitcher they have never seen before could be an excellent strategic move. What matters is that when, Boston’s pitchers are on the mound, the lineup keeps the contact high and the chase rate low. 

Keep up Contact Hitting
Baldelli is infamous for bringing in different hitters to face lefty or righty pitchers, meaning substitutions in the field. There needs to be more consistency in the lineup, as the constant movement of players can disrupt routines, quirks, and mechanics. The boys are having fun toting around a three-pound sausage as a good luck charm (and it’s working), but there was a change in the second White Sox series that has to be picked up before playing Boston. 

Monday marked the return of Carlos Correa and the demotion of Austin Martin, and while the Twins won the game, they certainly were struggling again at the plate. Correa is undoubtedly glad to be back, but he hasn’t looked very comfortable at the plate. Maybe he's easing in, getting the feeling of the bat again. In Martin's absence, Manuel Margot was aggressive at the plate during the White Sox series, helping secure some runs. Willi Castro looks to be back to himself, Alex Kirilloff is continuing to wreak havoc, and even Kyle Farmer is finding himself at the plate, which is going to be essential to stay ahead of Boston on the scoreboard. 

The Sox have scored 4.8 runs per game so far in 2024. They're down a couple of big-name regulars, in Trevor Story and Triston Casas, but Tyler O’Neill is answering all their problems. O’Neill has been one of the best hitters in the AL so far, and needs to be controlled at the plate, specifically in the strike zone. O’Neill can destroy the fastball, but he has a whiff rate of 30.4% against off-speed and 40.8% against breaking balls.

That is the norm for the Red Sox. They have many extremely hard hitters, but they lack discipline at the plate when it comes to chasing the offspeed stuff. The Twins match up with them well in that way, because only one team in baseball throws fastballs less often than they do. As it happens, it's the Red Sox.

The nood news is that the Twins are playing at home. There is nothing like a good home crowd, and the Twins fans have been loud and fervent (if few in number) this season. The atmosphere at Target Field has been electric. Nothing about this series says the team can’t take two of three and continue on through the season and climb in the win column, even against “good” teams.