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Twins vs Red Sox: News and Notes

Did You Know? Boston is called Beantown because the city had way too much molasses, leading to the dish known as Boston Baked Beans. (This is according to the Boston Globe, but it still seems unlikely.)

Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Probables (all games FSN)

  • Friday, 7:10pm: Vance Worley vs. Clay Buchholz
  • Saturday, 6:10pm: Scott Diamond vs. Ryan Dempster
  • Sunday, 1:10pm: Pedro Hernandez vs. John Lackey

Red Sox Notes

  • When the Red Sox beat the Twins in the opening game of a four-game series last week, the Sox led the AL East by two games. They then lost the final three games of the series to Minnesota, then followed that up by losing two of three to Toronto, and though they won their series against Tampa Bay, they're now a game back of the somehow red-hot Yankees.
  • Andrew Bailey was the Sox closer for about eight minutes, before he went on the DL with a strained biceps. You won't see him this weekend; he's scheduled to return Monday. Joel Hanrahan replaced him briefly, but tore a muscle in his elbow and is now probably out for the year. Junichi Tazawa is theoretically now the closer, but hasn't had a save situation. He won last night against Tampa Bay by pitching the eighth and ninth, but other than that, all he's done is blow a tie game against Toronto.
  • The Twins haven't won the season series against Boston since 2006. One win in this series would do it.

Twins Notes

  • According to La Velle E. Neal at the Star Tribune, Darin Mastroianni's foot isn't improving at all. Given the Twins medical staff, expect Mastroianni to be ready to go for 2014 spring training at the earliest.
  • Let's not get too excited about Kyle Gibson. He threw a shutout against Toledo the other day, but he didn't make it out of the fifth inning of the start on either side of the shutout, giving up five runs on eleven hits in one, and four runs on seven hits in the other.
  • Justin Morneau is batting .386 / .400 / .491 in May. You would have noticed more if Joe Mauer wasn't hitting .462 in the same span.
  • Speaking of Mauer, according to FanGraphs, he's eighth in the majors in Wins Above Replacement this year. First, however, is our old friend Carlos Gomez, who has an OPS of 1.024 and is generally playing better than he is able.