Game 58: Marlins at Twins

First Pitch: 7:10 pm CST

TV: FSN

Radio: Go 96.3 FM, TIBN

Know Thine Enemy: Fish Stripes

It's Game 2 in this interleague series against the Miami Marlins and though I always cheer for the Twins to win, I especially am hopeful because I love seeing people stick it to Jeffrey Loria. You think the Pohlads are/were bad owners? You haven't seen anything until you encounter Mr. Loria, a guy so off his rocker that last season he installed his own general manager as manager after firing our beloved Mike Redmond. He got a new stadium built, made a bunch of high-profile signings, then traded away all those players after one season. That's just scraping the surface.

Ricky Nolasco gets the start and I was a bit surprised to learn that this is his first career start against the Marlins, the team he spent the first 7 1/2 years of his career. In fact, he was part of the tail end of that Loria fire sale I just mentioned (the difference was that he wasn't traded before the season, unlike Buehrle, Reyes, etc.) However, I should have realized that Nolasco has only pitched for two other teams in his career (Dodgers and Twins) and thus never had a real opportunity to face the Marlins. *shrugs* My bad.

The Marlins counter with free agent acquisition (I swear I didn't start this game thread with this theme in mind) Wei-Yin Chen, who more or less has been exactly the same pitcher as he was with the Baltimore Orioles. His ERA is around 4, his FIP is around 4, he's not impressive in any way but he's not a bad pitcher, either. He gets the job done, someone the Twins have been trying to accomplish with the likes of Mike Pelfrey and Kevin Correia.

Time for everyone's favorite game, Where's Oswaldo? Found him! He's in the starting lineup, in right field! He's facing the lefty Chen though, so this isn't a good match-up for him. The alternative was using Max Kepler, who probably is more deserving anyway but has been scuffling a little lately. Might as well give Kepler a day off to regroup.