stringer bell

Eyes on the sky for this one. There shouldn't be much scoring and weather may end this before it starts.

I’ve been reading that the best-of-three opening series will be played at the higher seed. It would be nice for the Twinsvto host that series. It is in their hands. Wine 4 or 5 of seven against the White Sox and Cleveland should move them up and also hold the tiebreaker against either team.

The good news is that the Twins control their own destiny. If they can win 4-5 of the next seven games, they will be in position to get a much higher seed, especially given that they then would have the tiebreaker edge on one or both of the other playoff contenders in the division.

The top three teams for run differential in the AL are all from the Central Division. Cleveland, Chicago and the Twins.

While the second game has to be a disappointment for the Twins, both Cleveland and Chicago had leads late and lost to inferior teams. If you're a "glass half full" person, the Twins come home after the doubleheader a half game closer to both of the teams they are chasing, having played on the road against an above .500 team. If you're a "glass half empty" type, the Twins had a chance to come home in first place facing a pitcher who has never won a start in 17 tries (some as an opener) and they had a 2-0 lead in a 7-inning game.

I just don't know how the short rest effected Dobnak. His problem was getting the ball in the strike zone and additionally the two hit batters really exacerbated an already bad situation. He had his normal velocity and the ball appears to be moving (too much?), but it was an ineffective outing. Reminds me of what happened to Hill a couple starts ago, where he had zipped through a couple innings and then couldn't find the zone.

Well, the Twins return home a half game closer to both Cleveland and Chicago. Royals and Pirates both rally for late-game wins.

Baseball is a crazy game. A lot of things went wrong for the Twins. Of course, if Wieters hits a long ball, the game could be over.

Has to face three batters.

This at bat will not end well.

Tough to win doubleheaders. Wasted opportunities are magnified.

Oh my!

Twins have been lousy using their challenges and they're wasting one here.

Need a popup or strike out.

Disagree. Bremer said that Sanó was going to homer on that at-bat and he said it three times, while he just said that Rooker would homer "soon". Soon turned out to be the next pitch.

Game 2 Lineups: Twins 27-17 Wade cf Donaldson 3b Cruz dh Rosario lf Sanó 1b Rooker rf Adrianza ss Gonzalez 2b Jeffers c Pitching: Dobnak 6-2 2.72 ERA Cardinals 17-17 Edman rf Dejong ss Goldschmidt dh Miller 2b Ravelo 1b O'Neill lf Carpenter 3b Wieters c Bader cf Pitching: Ponce de Leon 0-3 7.82 ERA

The Twins have a one-day road trip today. Due to the Cardinals messed up schedule because of positive COVID-19 tests, the Twins will play two games in St. Louis today and have an off day tomorrow (and also Thursday). Unfortunately, my weather app says that there is a good chance of rain in St. Louis this afternoon. I don't know what MLB will do if weather interferes and I hope I don't find out. The Twins have 17 games remaining, no team has played more games. They are currently in third place in the AL Central, but barring a complete meltdown, they will make the playoffs this year. According to ESPN, they have a 99.5% chance to advance to postseason. They have played well against their main two contenders--winning four of six versus the White Sox and four of seven against Cleveland, meaning that in the event of a tie with either of those clubs, the Twins control the tiebreaker. On the flip side, Minnesota is 9-9 versus Detroit and Kansas City, splitting thus far with both of the bottom teams. Baldelli rested four starters yesterday, three of whom are nursing minor injuries. Two other starters are on the Injured List, so the Twins lineup had the look of a Spring Training exhibition game. They scored six runs and played well in the field so the grousing can subside, at least until today's lineup is posted. Another area of criticism for the manager has been the use of the bullpen and doing so-called bullpen games, where seven or eight bullpen arms are used. With the expanded rosters, there are a lot of arms in the bullpen and evidence suggests that the Twins' bullpen pitchers are not overworked despite seldom having a starter go as many as six innings. The Twins are starting two of their regular rotation today, with Berríos going in the first game and Dobnak starting the second on short rest. So they may have a modified bullpen game for the second game. Remember, these are seven inning games, so if Berríos goes six and Dobnak three the bullpen will only need to go five innings (with an additional pitcher for the doubleheader) assuming they win both games and there are no extra innings. The final topic of the day is Twins left fielder Eddie Rosario, seemingly always a lightning rod for discussion. Eddie has been at the center of fielding mishaps, baserunning gaffes with some nice hits and RBIs sprinkled in with one-pitch at-bats. There is an article on the Front Page of TD suggesting it is time to move on from Eddie. I'm not ready to go there yet, but I do think that 2020 will be Eddie's last in a Twins uniform. Today's opponent is St. Louis. They have played the fewest games in MLB and currently sit just above ..500. The Cards are starting former closer Carlos Martinez in the first game and likely will do a bullpen game in the second (if there is a doubleheader today). The Cardinals lineup features Silver Slugger Paul Goldschmidt and future Hall-of-Famer Yadier Molina (the last and best of the Molina brothers catching family). The Cards are a good team. A split is acceptable, but a sweep is needed if the Twins are to gain on Cleveland and Chicago and improve their playoff position. GAME ONE LINEUPS: Twins 26-17 Arraez 2b Donaldson 3b Polanco ss Cruz dh Rosario lf Sanó 1b Cave rf Buxton cf Astudillo c Pitching: Berríos 3-3 4.29 ERA Cardinals 17-16 Wong 2b Edman 3b Goldschmidt 1b Miller dh Dejong ss Molina c O'Neill lf Bader cf Thomas rf Pitching: Martinez 0-1 14.73 ERA

The outfielder threw towards home and the ball was cut off. Often a runner will sacrifice himself to assure a runner scores, but that wasn’t really the case. This certainly wasn’t as stupid/foolish as running through a stop sign with nobody out, but on balance it wasn’t very smart.

Bremer said that Dobnak will start one of the games in St. Louis, so not a true BP game, although I doubt they will push Dobnak too much. Berríos might go 6 or 7, so they should have a full bullpen to back up Dobnak.

Only two more left with Detroit. I like what they've done with their team. They aren't deep and have lost two ex-Twins to injury right now. Goodrum and Cron. If they had those two, they could move Candelario to third and maybe Goodrum to the OF. Their starters appear to have potential and they have some good arms in the bullpen, not enough obviously. I guess I see these Tigers as similar to the mid-decade Twins. If things go right as soon as next year, they could be a playoff team. The Twins probably won't dominate the division as soon as next year unless they improve. Chicago will probably be good for quite a while, Cleveland has the best pitching in baseball, and both KC and Detroit are on the rise.

I hope the Stashak that opened the season is the guy who is being activated. He got knocked around a bit his last couple of outings. The Twins still have Littell and Poppen at St. Paul and I would expect one or both of them will be up in the final three weeks. Wow, only 18 games left.

OK, this has not been pretty. Astudillo lets two pitches get past him, and doesn't catch a decent throw from Rosario. Rosario makes a few ill-advised throws plus a real base running mistake. Hill struggled off and on, and May had a poor outing. Detroit has shown the front end of their BP is pretty bad and they've made base running mistakes. I hope that the Twins can hold on and stay with Chicago and Cleveland this weekend.

Rocco is certainly not pushing Donaldson and Buxton in their return from the Injured List. I guess the Twins are basically a lock to make postseason but I'd sure like to see the regular lineup in there as a whole. Another test for Hill. In his two good starts, he's been good through five innings. In his two bad starts, he couldn't get over the hump with control issues.

Good points, but I don't think they tell the whole story. Buxton has a .241 OBP, compared to Gonzalez' .301. As far as guaranteeing a run because of Buxton's speed starting an inning on second base, yes he would be able to score on infield hoppers that wouldn't score the much slower Gonalez and a fly ball wouldn't have to be very deep to score him from third. However, given the low amount of contact that hitters produce and the fact that much of the time there is contact, the ball is popped up, I don't think the odds are appreciably higher with the speedster and Buxton never steals third base.

Two outs. They probably were in a step or two because of Buck’s speed, but the infield only needed one out (that they never got).