GameThread: Twins @ White Sox, Game 114

The Twins swept the doubleheader from the White Sox yesterday, winning by scores of 7-4 and 3-2. We were treated to some punches in the bullpen by Jared Burton, and plenty of dingers as all 10 runs for the Twins scored on home runs yesterday.

Mike Pelfrey (4-9, 5.23)

Big Pelf has been battling his tail off, as Gardy might say, but at least he's been putting together some better outings of late. However, he hasn't pitched more than 6 innings since June 12th (7 IP against the Phillies), showing that he's been reaching some high pitch counts early in his outings. Combined with his sloth-like speed in between pitches, and it's been difficult to watch a Pelfrey start pretty much at any time this season.

An encouraging sign is that Pelfrey has found his strikeout pitches, as he's K'd 23 batters in his past 26 2/3 innings. Pretty impressive for a guy that throws his fastballs over 70% of the time. In addition to his sinker and 4-seamer, Pelfrey also throws a cutter, splitter, and curveball, and FanGraphs rates his 4-seamer as his best least worst pitch.

Andre Rienzo (0-0, 1.38)

Opposing Pelfrey on the mound is rookie Andre Rienzo, who is making only his 3rd major league start. While Bert Blyleven says that a pitcher throws "straight over the top" for basically anyone that doesn't throw sidearm, Rienzo is one of those pitchers that truly throws with a straight overhand delivery. Despite being winless in his two starts, he has certainly done his part as he's turned in quality starts against the Tigers and Indians, although he did give up 3 unearned runs to the Indians in his major league debut.

Because of his overhand delivery, Rienzo's low-90s fastball has very little movement on it but a ton of "rise." That sounds like a recipe for a ton of fly balls, but Rienzo keeps hitters from smacking around his fastball with a high-80s cutter. Additionally, he will also mix in a mid-70s curveball, a change-up, and a 2-seam fastball.

I'll be unable to get lineups posted today (Twins part-time employee picnic!) so you can look for them down in the comments section.