Game 150: Twins @ Indians

Pregame

With 13 games left to play, the Twins are one and a half games out of first place after losing yesterday, while the White Sox won two.  It's a tough road, even with the three-game series against the South Siders on the horizon, and tonight they send out Kevin Slowey to help keep the margin minimal.  Kevin's two outs away from having seven consecutive quality starts, but as it stands he's only hit five; two of the starts saw him stall with two outs in the sixth.  One of the larger reasons for his success over the last four or five weeks has been the lack of free passes:  just three since the beginning of August.  His 2.28 ERA over his last seven starts (43.1 innings) is incredible.  He'll have his work cut out for him against a familair foe, but he's pitching with a lot of confidence right now and he won't be afraid to challenge the Cleveland lineup.

Taking the hill for the Indians is Scott Lewis, making his second major league start.  Turning 25 in just 11 days, the right-hander owned the Orioles in his debut, striking out three and allowing just three hits over eight shutout innings.  His stuff is pretty mediocre, throwing a fastball in the mid to upper-80's, a mid-70's curve and change, but it's his accuracy that's helped him get to where he is.  Splitting the year between double and triple-A, he walked just 13 in more than 97 innings.  In the majors he's not likely to repeat the success he's had at striking out hitters, but it's not unheard of to see an under-whelming pitcher rack up a few K's either.  Hopefully the Twins can get ahold of him early and shake him up.  It's worth noting that after winning 10 in a row , and 16 of 19, to catapult themselves into third place in the AL Central, Cleveland is 7-10 since.

Predicted lineup for Cleveland:  Sizemore (CF), Carroll (3B), Choo (RF), Peralta (SS), Martinez (DH), Shoppach (C), Dellucci (LF), Garko (1B), Cabrera (2B)

And for the Twinnies, the RHP standard:  Span (RF), Casilla (2B), Mauer (C), Morneau (1B), Kubel (DH), Young (LF), Buscher (3B), Punto (SS), Gomez (CF)