Twins Notebook 9/8: Twins Look To Berríos, Dobnak In Doubleheader vs. Cardinals

YESTERDAY’S RECAP

Twins 6, Tigers 2: Pineda Pitches 7 Innings, Twins Take 4 of 5

TODAY

Twins at Cardinals

Game 1 2:15 pm CT

José Berríos (4.29 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 2.35 K:BB) vs. Carlos Martinez (14.73 ERA, 2.18 WHIP, 2.00 K:BB)

Game 2 to follow 30 minutes later

Randy Dobnak (2.72 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 2.10 K:BB) vs. Daniel Ponce de Leon (7.82 ERA, 1.90 WHIP, 1.21 K:BB)

These look like a couple of very good matchups for the Twins on paper, but Martinez’s numbers are all from one start (which happened to be against the Twins) and Ponce de Leon’s career numbers (3.91 ERA in 94 1/3 innings) are much better than what he’s shown in 2020.

Berríos racked up 23 strikeouts over 17 2/3 innings in his last three starts, posting a 2.04 ERA in the process. Dobnak will be pitching on short rest, but he also threw just 61 pitches in his last start. It’ll be interesting to see how long he goes today.

The schedule originally called for this short series to be played over the next two days, but the Cardinals had to move some things around after they had a number of games suspended. St. Louis will have an off day tomorrow before hosting Detroit for another doubleheader Thursday. The Twins will actually have the luxury of having the next two days off.

The Cardinals are 17-16 this season, which is good enough to put them fifth in the National League playoff picture. They’ve won six of their last eight games. St. Louis is 6-4 in doubleheader games so far this season while Minnesota is 3-3.

Nelson Cruz last played on Saturday, as he’s been dealing with a sore hip. It’ll be interesting to see if he plays in today’s doubleheader or if the Twins take the opportunity to give him a long period of rest with the two days off coming.

AROUND THE AL CENTRAL

CLE 5, KCR 2

1. CHW 26-15

1. CLE 26-15

3. MIN 26-17 (-1)

4. DET 18-21 (-7)

5. KCR 14-28 (-12.5)

I took a look into the remaining schedules for each of the three top AL Central teams in the video below.

SEE ALSO

3 Twins Players Heading to Free Agency at the Wrong Time

You are Hereby Circled: The Legacy of Bert Blyleven

The September Jolt We Forgot We Needed