Fresh off his seven-inning no-hitter, Slowey has now run together a stretch of five good starts. The Twins are 4-1 in those games, under Kevin's 2.10 ERA in 34.1 innings, as opponents hit just .151/.209/.218. Like Jesse Crain, his resurence is the result of relying on pitches other than his fastball to get batters out. No doubt he'll continue to employ that strategy today, so look to see how he uses those off-speed offerings.
Bell is a 23-year old right-hander, following up a highly unsuccessful 2009 with a less terrible but still unimpressive 2010. This is his fourth start of the year, all have come periodically over his last seven appearances, and to this point it's fair to say that he hasn't kept a consistent starting job for a reason.
Exclusively a three-pitch hurler, Bell's low 90s fastball is complemented by a mid to low 80s slider and an occasional changeup. He'll exclusively go fastball-slider versus right-handed hitters, which means guys like Cuddyer and Young should be waiting to tee off on his fastball. Batters have raked against all three of Bell's pitches (.341 average versus fastballs, .355 versus sliders and an unbelieveable .522 off the changeup) in his Major League career, and this year the trend isn't getting better: 25.6% line drive rate, .401 BABIP, with LOB% just 62%.
If the Twins don't kick Bell out of the game before the fifth, I'll be disappointed.