First Pitch: 1:05pm CST
TV: WFTC-29
Radio: TRN
Know Thine Enemy: South Side Sox
Buehrle, our longtime nemesis, devoured the opposition in his first start last week. Traditionally he doesn't get many swinging strikes, but one of the reasons he dominated last week was because he did get a lot of swinging strikes. If the Twins want to win, they'll need to do significantly better today than they did yesterday.
Because he throws so many different types of pitches and because he changes speeds so well with all of them, it's hard to catch up to him. And he moves quickly, which means once he gets a hitter off balance you might as well just end the plate appearance right there. It's one of the reasons his mid-80's fastball is so effective--it's thrown so rarely compared to "normal" ratios that it's almost a surprise when it does come. And any pitcher who can survive while throwing his straight fastball less than 50% of the time is doing something right.
Still, Beuhrle relies on the offense to get themselves out. He needs the Twins to put the ball in play to succeed. He'll attack hitters, so maybe today isn't the best day to preach "take a pitch or two". Be aggressive against Beurhle, don't worry about working the count or running up his pitch totals, and just get men on base. Gofightwin.
Blackburn's first start was good enough, but he'll need to do better today. He's facing a pitcher in his own mold, and that other guy's been doing it a lot longer than Nick has.
The keys for Blackburn are the same as they always are: limit the walks, keep the ball on the ground, don't nibble. This could be a two-hour game today if both of these guys are on.
Lineups after the jump.
Twins
Span, CF
Hudson, 2B
Mauer, C
Morneau, 1B
Cuddyer, RF
Young, LF
Hardy, SS
Harris, DH
Punto, 3B
Sawks
Pierre, LF
Beckham, 2B
Quentin, RF
Konerko, 1B
Kotsay, DH
Rios, CF
Pierzynski, C
Ramirez, SS
Teahen, 3B