Know Thine Enemy: South Side Sox
It's Liriano versus Floyd for the second time in as many weeks. Last time, Liriano danced out of trouble most of the night en route to a Twins win. This time around he's in the comforts of Target Field, and you can bet he smells blood. If he's halfway between who he was last week and who we've seen him be at his best this year, the offense won't need to put up a big number to pull out the win.
We can go back to what we said about Floyd last week, because while he might approach each batter differently his overall strategy shouldn't change too much:
Long known for his big, sweeping, fantastic curveball, there are times where Twins hitters shouldn't be looking for it: on the first pitch of a plate appearance (just 5% curveballs), and when Floyd is behind in the count ... When he gets two strikes, and when he gets ahead, that's when Floyd really feels comfortable going to his bread-and-butter pitch. Against right-handed hitters he rarely throws a changeup (3%), but he will go to the slider far more often. He shoots for the outside black here. Against left-handed hitters he becomes more of a four-pitch pitcher, and while he still likes to work away he can drop that breaking ball low and inside.
The Twins will need to take advantage of mistakes at the dish. Floyd is a good pitcher.
WHITE SOX
Juan Pierre — LF
Alexei Ramirez — SS
Alex Rios — CF
Paul Konerko — 1B
Carlos Quentin — DH
A.J. Pierzynski — C
Andruw Jones — RF
Omar Vizquel — 3B
Gordon Beckham — 2B
TWINS
Denard Span — CF
Orlando Hudson — 2B
Joe Mauer — C
Jason Kubel — RF
Michael Cuddyer — 1B
Jim Thome — DH
Delmon Young — LF
Danny Valencia — 3B
J.J. Hardy — SS