Game 71: Phillies at Twins

First Pitch: 7:10 pm CST

TV: FSN

Radio: Go 96.3 FM, TIBN

Know Thine Enemy: The Good Phight

Yesterday I asked at Inside Edge to no one in particular, "When terrible hitting faces terrible pitching, who wins?" At least for last night, the correct answer was "terrible hitting" as the Phillies and Twins combined for 24 runs. Guess what? It's another matchup of terrible pitchers today as well!

Starting for the Twins is Kyle Gibson who still has yet to get it going this season. His main issue has been strikeouts and walks, as he hasn't had enough of the former and too many of the latter. Other than that, the rest of his numbers don't look that awful. He isn't giving up too many homers, his BABIP is a respectable .306, really his poor numbers can be tied to either of those two stats. Since he's facing the Phillies, he might have a chance to get back on track, but as we saw yesterday, nothing is certain.

Opposing him is lefty Adam Morgan, a second-year pitcher whose struggles can entirely be tied to giving up too much solid contact. He's allowed twice as many home runs per 9 innings as the average pitcher and hitters are batting over .300 this season, so likewise the Twins hitters should be licking their chops. On the plus side for him, though, he's upped his velocity on all his pitches by roughly 2 MPH, so Phillies fans should be pleased to see that trending upward.

No Byung Ho Park in the lineup as Paul Molitor hopes that both Eduardos Nunez and Escobar keep their hot bats going.