It's Game 2 of the three-game series, as the Twins take on the Jays.
Probable Pitchers
Slowey had himself a pretty good night last time out, though his evening ended with an early shower after he took a liner off of his ankle. Despite the premature exit, Slowey still gave up just four hits and one run in six innings - this after giving up seventeen runs in a dozen innings over his previous three starts. He did beat Toronto on May 17, albeit after pitching just five innings (this was during his "Cannot throw more than five innings in any one start no matter what" phase). The righthander has been all over the map this year, so we'll have to wait and see whether we get Good Slowey or Evil Slowey tonight.
We have a new winner in the "names that are absolutely, 100% impossible to spell or pronounce correctly on the first try" contest!
Allow me to scour the wires for facts about Rzepcynski:
- According to Wikipedia, his name is pronounced "zep-CHIN-ski." Look for Bert to call him "Zapata" by accident at least once tonight.
- His last name is worth 40 points in Scrabble. (Via Bluebird Banter, which calls him "Scrabble," in a homage to this fact.) (UPDATE: Jonathan R. in the comments points out that there is only one 'z' in Scrabble, meaning you have to use a blank for the other one, meaning his name's only worth 30 points, not 40. I learned something today!)
He's a lefty ground-ball pitcher, who started 11 games for the Jays last year, posting a 2-4 record and a 3.67 ERA. He struck out 60 batters in 61 innings, but also walked 30, part of the reason he started this year at Triple-A Las Vegas (where he had a 6.66 ERA in nine starts).
He's making this start because Shawn Marcum went on the DL. - He started his own season on the DL with a broken finger, but is just now getting his call back to the bigs.
- The book on him says he's hard on lefties, but last year, lefties and righties hit him almost exactly as well (which is to say pretty poorly). He just needs to figure out a way not to throw 115 pitches in five innings. Most of his starts from last year look pretty similar: six innings, 100+ pitches, eight strikeouts, four runs on four hits and six walks.
Lineups
TWINS
1. Denard Span cf
2. Orlando Hudson 2b
3. Joe Mauer c
4. Justin Morneau 1b
5. Michael Cuddyer rf
6. Jason Kubel dh
7. Delmon Young lf
8. Danny Valencia 3b
9. J.J. Hardy ss
BLUE JAYS
1. Fred Lewis lf
2. Alex Gonzalez ss
3. Jose Bautista rf
4. Vernon Wells cf
5. Adam Lind dh
6. John Buck c
7. Lyle Overbay 1b
8. Edwin Encarnacion 3b
9. John McDonald 2b