GameThread: Twins vs. Red Sox, Game 28

After yesterday's dramatic walk-off victory where lazy Joe Mauer actually did something good in his career for once, the Twins are back at it again against the Red Sox this afternoon. Taking the mound for the Twins is Nick Tepesch, who is making his first appearance for the team despite being on the active roster for about two weeks. He first came up on April 24th, replacing Buddy Boshers to help out the exhausted bullpen and ultimately it turned out he wasn't needed. Due to his inactivity, I heard a few days ago that Tepesch might be limited to just 75 pitches today, so get ready for the bullpen to take over in the 4th inning or so.

Please don't be like Dick Bremer and Jack Morris yesterday with Red Sox infielder Josh Rutledge...

The #Twins' booth, presumably getting paid for this, has repeatedly referred to Josh Rutledge, in his sixth MLB season, as a rookie.

— Joe Sheehan (@joe_sheehan) May 6, 2017

... as Nick Tepesch is not a rookie. (My guess is that being a Rule 5 pick during the offseason, Dick and Jack automatically assumed Rutledge was making his major league debut this year. Nope, he was a veteran player that was selected because he wasn't on a team's 40-man roster.) Tepesch has made 43 career appearances in the major leagues spread over three seasons, with all but one occurring in 2013 and 2014 with the Texas Rangers. He's not a spectacular pitcher by any means, but hopefully he can keep the Twins in the game today.

Facing him is reigning Cy Young winner Rick Porcello who has pitched like anything but a Cy Young winner this year with a 4.46 ERA. However, his 1-4 record is also a case of the Red Sox offense being incapable of scoring any runs for him as they haven't pushed a single run across in his last four starts. I hear that's bad. Anyway, Porcello is striking out more hitters than at any point of his career though, so he does have the chance of turning his luck around today.