Mill1634

Agreed. I've never been a huge Thorpe fan, although I know many have/still are. He doesn't have a great fastball and his offspeed stuff doesn't really have swing and miss in it. Even if you are facing a poor offensive team, it doesn't matter. They're still MLB hitters.

How to shut down the Twins offense 101: 1. Throw a soft tossing lefty 2. ??? 3. Profit

You can see why people are high on Alcala...if he can figure out where his fastball is going he will be good. Also, feels like we are down 10-0, not 4-0...COME ON BATS

Those 3 innings were not fun to watch

Don't run on Twins' left fielders!

Lewis Thorpe is still bad

Not feeling so great about this

Wiiiiiiiideeeeee strike zone tonight

These Pirates uniforms have to be top 5 in the game

Pause. Scroll down. Restart. Yes.

Just announced that Rich Hill will NOT start tomorrow due to fatigue and back soreness. It will be Thorpe, Berrios, Dobnak, and Maeda for this 4 game series.

The Twins welcome Derek Shelton and the Pittsburgh Pirates to town for a quick two game home series before both teams pack up and travel back to Pittsburgh where they will square off in another two game series, making this a four game series. Very stupid of you MLB, but more on that later. The Twins come off of a very productive week, taking 2 from STL, and 3 of 4 from the Cleveland Indians. The Pirates sit at 2-7 on the year, complete opposite of our 7-2 Minnesota Twins. The Pitchers: LHP Derek Holland (0-0, 3.18 ERA, 5.2 IP, 5 K's) vs LHP Lewis Thorpe (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 4.2 IP, 1 K) Derek Holland is coming off a very poor year with an ERA of 6.08, and peripherals such as FIP, which was a 6.10, to back up his poor performance. However, in 2018 he had a sub 4 ERA, and was very good his first time on the bump in 2020. He struck out 5 Brewer's hitters, only giving up 2 runs. However, he has to face a lineup that destroys lefties tonight, which isn't good considering he had an OPS against of nearly 1.000 last year facing right handed hitters. Lewis Thorpe gets the ball for the Twins after Homer Bailey was put on the 10-day IL yesterday. Thorpe has looked good in this young season, working out of relief. He also has the advantage of facing one of the weakest lineups in the game. He hasn't thrown more than 42 pitches in an outing this year, so I expect him to throw around 70 pitches. The Lineups Twins C Mitch Garver R 2B Luis Arraez L DH Nelson Cruz R 1B Miguel Sano R RF Max Kepler L 3B M. Gonzalez S LF Jake Cave L CF Byron Buxton R SS E. Adrianza S Pirates CF Cole Tucker S 2B Kevin Newman R 1B Josh Bell S DH Jose Osuna R LF B. Reynolds S 3B P. Evans R RF G. Heredia R C J. Stallings R SS E. Gonzalez R The Twins will run out their lefty killers immediately, with Mitch Garver leading off. Arraez moves up to the 2-hole with Jorge Polanco earning his first day of rest in the young season, and Kepler sliding down due to the matchup. Sano also slides up in the order because of the matchup, and due to the fact that he mashed 2 homers the other night. Donaldson is absent once again, and the hot Marwin Gonzalez finds the start at third base. Eddie Rosario gets a night off, with Jake Cave playing in left. Buxton will start for the 3rd time in as many days, and the aforementioned Ehire Adrianza, who OPS'd .773 off of lefties last year, rounds out the order. The Pirates lineup features only 3 hitters batting above .200 on the year, and 2 are right on that mark. Josh Bell has struggled out of the gates after a very strong first half of the season last year. I have no clue what else to say about Derek Shelton's lineup, other than sorry, because those names are not appealing. Mill's Musings 1. Scheduling Stupidity In case you have been living under a rock, we in the the midst of a global pandemic that is not only a threat to the 2020 MLB season, but also the threat to every single person around the world. How does the MLB choose to handle this? They schedule a split series home-and-home, because that is just a fantastic idea! Bring a team in from city A for 48 hours, then send team A back to City A, while bringing team B back with them. The away team in the first half of the series has to travel to and back from their city in the span of 48 hours to play the same exact team the next day. Travel is the number one threat to this season, despite what protocols are in place. I'm not health expert, but common sense tells me a traditional 4 game series at one ballpark would make a lot more sense. 2. Rocco's Restrictions MLB arms have been dropping like flies early in the season due to the short ramp up time the players had this Summer, and the latest victim may be two-way star Shohei Othani. However, Twins' Manager Rocco Baldelli is taking no chances this year, and has pushed back starters multiple times, not even two turns through the rotation. Rich Hill was pushed back the 2nd game into the year, and yesterday Homer Bailey was pushed back before behind placed on the IL. Rich Hill would be in turn to start the game tonight, but he was given an extra day of rest and will start tomorrow. I like what Rocco is doing, because the Twins rotation is a legit 7-man rotation, and becomes 8 deep with Odorizzi. Throw in Michael Pineda and the Twins could form 2 separate rotations that would be better than half of the leagues normal 5 man rotation. This Day In History - 2008: Francisco Liriano, sent down to the minors after an 0-3 start in April attempting to come back from Tommy John surgery, blanks the Indians for six innings in his return to the Twins' rotation. The right-hander's performance propels Minnesota into first place in the American League Central with the eventual 6-2 victory over the Tribe along with a White Sox loss. Pick to Click: Byron Buxton will have two hits, including an extra base hit

Twins win. The arms were pretty dominant on both sides, but especially ours. 4 runs in 4 games, 2 of which were on one swing, and another was miscommunication by our left side. I’ll take it!! Just wait until this offense gets going and things will get scary for opponents. Facing Pittsburg for 4 games can’t hurt. Hopefully Thorpe is prepared to throw strikes, they arent an offense that is known for much firepower.

Twins Win!!! I'll take any win over any team on a bullpen day, especially one against the most competitive team (besides us) in the division, and 3-1 to finish out the weekend is awesome. The pitching has been fantastic, and the offense jumps on early. Until tomorrow, Go Twins!!!

May with a gift, but I will take it! Interested to see what happens here in the 9th, as Romo isn't great against lefties, but Rogers has thrown 3 of the past 4 days, and two days in a row

As good as the ump was the other day, this one is on the complete other end of the spectrum

The At-Bats the past 4 innings have been really, really poor

Duff Man!

Nice job by Wisler, and the two previous pitchers to get through the bulk of this game. Now turn it over to the backend guys. Offense needs to do what they haven't done thus far and add on some runs late

Eddie with a patented cannon shot

If we keep our pace of one run an inning, and Cleveland keeps their pace of zero runs an inning, I feel confident in our chances of winning this game

Cruz!!! Professional hitter

Smeltzer with a perfect 3rd on 9 pitches..me gusta.

MITCH MASHED!!!!

2 clean innings from Clippard...I'll take that